Steady as she goes. In the old days, before planes or even cars, the metaphor for the nation was Ship of State. Is it smooth sailing? Are we battered by high winds and storms? Are there clouds on the horizon? Can we get over the (sand) bar? Are we on course? Never fear, the Captain’s steady hand is on the helm. The Captain will guide us into port.

As a nation, we have always embraced the myth of a strong leader, whether that was General Washington or General Custer. From the first landings in Virginia and Massachusetts we have always pushed forward. Ohio was only the first Northwest Territory. The Appalachians were only the first mountains our white forefathers crossed and the Oregon Trail only the last route to the Pacific. Always we have been on the move, making progress. We get things done.

Patience has not been the path to success, nor held up as a national virtue. We are the people that get things done. We act. Now, suddenly, the trail we have to blaze to good health, our path to our neighbors’ and our own literal survival, is to do nothing. And we are to do it alone, gathering only with family members. With all others it is keeping a respectful six feet apart. Social distancing is now in our vocabulary and practiced by every one of us.

The hardest thing is to wait, as expectant moms about to deliver and dads waiting at their sides know. While of a set duration, Christmas Eve is the longest night of the year.

How much is your health worth? And your parents in their care facility? Or a spouse or sibling’s whether at Boeing or a classroom or restaurant or a warehouse? If any of those workplaces – or a church – fills and one person, asymptomatic with the coronavirus, is present, acting themselves, hurrying to be healthy, neither the economy nor any community will bounce back, be open anytime soon for business.

Children do not like it but they learn to follow family rules and wait to open their presents. Bosses and politicians, counting pennies, watching the clock, want their coffers filled, their employees producing, customers buying, votes cast for them. They cannot always get their way. They cannot now.

The experts keep insisting the strength of the underlying economy is sound.

We can afford to wait, to keep our distances even for the months it will probably take for the coronavirus to move through this nation, 50 states from sea to shining sea. Only by being in lockstep, staying locked down, can we rid ourselves of this scourge. And it will be months. Will it go to the year’s end? Beyond?

We talk of our national character. This is another test of it, trying us like never before.

Leadership that holds our hand, figuratively, that coos soothing words of patience and perseverance, is needed at every level, from the town hall, to the statehouse to the White House.

Good things come to those who wait is the old cliché. It is our time to wait.

Indeed, along with our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor, our health, and therefore our very futures, depend on our exquisitely successfully waiting.