(Change For Good is an ongoing series of thoughts and observations on life as impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic)

“Price is what you pay; value is what you get,” Warren Buffet has famously said. This has large applications in investment strategies, but also, I think, in other ways.

Price is arbitrary, while value is fundamental. The price I pay for a pound of coffee as a consumer, say $9.99, is determined by what the coffee is valued at by the producer. I get a deal when I can buy the coffee at a cheaper price than the actual value of that coffee, say $12.99.

But if I value the coffee, I am willing to pay $12.99. Sometimes I might even be willing to pay more than the value.

As we are all called upon to help to stop the spread of COVID-19, we are called to pay a price. To make a sacrifice. But what is the value of what we’re “getting” in return? It is helping others. Protecting others. Saving others.

The value of a life is worth the price we are called to pay. It may be in the short-term uncomfortable, frustrating, painful, showing little to no IMMEDIATE return on our personal investment. But the short-term investment we are making will have a longterm return in the lives of others. This is about ALL of us.

All economic terms and ideas aside, commodification of people and relationships is harmful. Always. Maybe this “pause” on the world will help change some of that, as the absence created by social distancing “makes the heart grow fonder”.

This is a time to recognize that to love my neighbor as myself is to value them as I value myself. It is to honor them and show how valuable they are to me. You are making sacrifices for others and others are making sacrifices for you. Everyone’s a hero.

This will pass. And when it does, may we see each other a little bit different than we did before. May we be a little bit more willing to pay a price for the sake of another.