Are You Aware? Homefront — In Our Response Lies Our Growth and Our Freedom

Maslow needs - Mormon Women for Ethical Government

This is part II in our “battlefronts” Awareness Wednesday series. Read the other posts in the series here.

According to Maslow, our three most important needs are physical need, for things such as air, food, and water; need for safety, such as feeling safe from danger, pain, or an uncertain future; and love and/or belonging, which includes the need to bond, feel loved, and have strong attachments with others. All these important needs are challenged by our present circumstances, as we each fight our individual battles on the homefront to help contain this coronavirus.

In this war, many of the most important contributions will be made on the homefront. Each of us — and how we conduct our lives, and how our families handle this — will help determine the number of casualties in the end. Our battles are as unique as each family unit.

An interruption in access to physical needs has been the first obvious issue families have encountered.

Many staples, such as toilet paper, flour, and sugar, quickly became scarce. There is still uncertainty about food supplies in the future as we brace for potential labor shortages due to illness.

A less obvious physical need may be access to technology. We need the internet, software, updated computers, and more in-depth understanding of how these work so we can continue to earn a living and have family members attend school, all from home. The digital divide in this country makes this a difficult obstacle for millions of families. According to the FCC, 21.3 million families lacked access to broadband service in 2019. Rural families, and low-income families, and children are most affected by this discrepancy. Many of these homes are also without the needed devices. There is strong evidence to suggest that access to broadband is positively correlated to economic prosperity. This is more important than ever to communities, as over 10 million people (in the U.S. alone) have already lost their jobs and the ability to purchase daily necessities.

Our need for safety has also been threatened.

Safety must always be on our minds as we take many precautions, such as washing our hands, social distancing, wiping down our groceries, wearing masks, etc. We are at war with an omnipresent, unseen enemy. We are only as strong as the weakest link within our household, as we are much more likely to contract an illness from someone we live with than anyone else.

Our futures are uncertain, and the stress that accompanies this uncertainty brings additional safety issues. Increases in domestic violence and the number of children needing to be put in foster care only emphasize the pressure-cooker situation the pandemic has created. Some major cities have reported double-digit increases in the percentages of domestic violence being reported since March. And record-high gun sales since the pandemic began increase the likelihood that this violence can turn lethal.

Many of these pressures can also cause or increase anxiety, depression, and mental illness. Calls to suicide and mental health hotlines have skyrocketed. Half of all Americans report suffering from mental health issues in recent weeks. And loneliness, for those who live alone or away from loved ones, can have serious mental and physical side effects.

Our need for love and belonging is easily overlooked if we only focus on tackling these other extensive challenges.

Yet love and belonging are the very things that will help us through everything else. In the middle of these overwhelming challenges, “helping others can provide a sense of control and empowerment.” Reaching out and finding ways to do good and making things better for someone else can be a source of comfort when the world feels unpredictable and chaotic.

Love and belonging are key. Try to consider the needs of others. People living alone need their friends, neighbors, and family members to reach out with phone calls and cards.

What is being done to help those currently in detention centers? Are they safe? Who do you know with disabilities who could use your help?

There are many examples of people asking themselves what they can do in their own neighborhoods to make this difficult situation more bearable, while still social distancing. The ideas are limitless. One neighborhood with several young children united by putting teddy bears in windows, on their roofs, in trees, etc., so that when families went for a walk they could make a game of seeing how many bears they could find. In another neighborhood teenage boys walked around putting garbage cans back where they belong next to people’s houses just to show love.

Viktor Frankl, a neurologist and psychiatrist who studied the unusual compassionate acts of prisoners in Nazi concentration camps, said, “When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves. Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms — to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way. . . . In our response lies our growth and our freedom.”

How we choose to respond to our individual battles will determine if we increase our humanity and strengthen our communities.