The last few months will be remembered for many things but in our household what won’t go unforgotten is the insight my husband and I have had into each other’s working lives. We’ve often said how much we’d love to do a grown-up version of take your friend or spouse to work day – just to get a glimpse into what we do during our, as Dolly sung, 9-5’s.
Now, we’ve had our chance. As we’ve beavered away at our desks, we’ve had more of a sense of one another’s day-to-day realities. I’m a teacher, so from my end of the house it’s online lessons on the ethics of veganism, and my students’ ‘no homework’ excuses expertly morphing from “the dog ate it” to “my wifi went down as you set it”. My husband’s a doctor so from his; phone and video consultations with patients and prescription printouts all with a bagful of PPE to hand, ready for any in-person visits.
These peeks into each other’s worlds have been so interesting - and they’ve been widespread. I’ve loved the many memes whose gist was, “never again will we question what a stay-at-home parent does all day” or those that attempted to put into words their now visceral recognition of exactly what a teacher does.
The singer Nick Cave wrote recently about what he calls “the compassionate act of witnessing”, he said; “love has something to do with the notion of being seen.”
The importance of visibility and understanding others was never better put or lived-out than by the American activist for Children’s Rights, Marian Wright Edelman. She was the daughter of a Baptist minister who went on to become the first woman of colour to be admitted to the Mississippi Bar; her social Christianity led her to the Civil Rights Movement, organising marches with Martin Luther King in the 60’s. But what she’s best known for is the claim she made which went on to underpin a lifelong dedication to helping disadvantage kids. She said: “you can’t be what you can’t see”, in other words, young people need a full rainbow of faces to model the education routes and career paths available to them.
Marian’s optimistic view of moral progress is rooted in being seen. As this illuminating time tails off she reminds me to hold onto all the new ways of seeing 2020 has granted us.