Heat Treat Today publishes four print magazines a year, and included in each is a letter from the publisher, Doug Glenn. This letter first appeared in Heat Treat Today‘s Automotive Heat Treating magazine, June 2020.
For the record, the 2020 North American heat treat industry has been severely impacted by COVID-19. Everyone I’ve talked to agrees that the reality of 2020 will pale in comparison to the hopes and dreams for 2020 back in January and February of this year. March and April usually bring spring-like optimism, but this year those two months were marked by a grinding of the US economy to a nearly complete standstill, the heat treat industry included. As one of our Latvian foreign exchange visitors said in his broken English, “NOT GOOD.” Thus, it has been; and thus, it is even as of this writing.
Every situation, however, is 20% situation and 80% what you make of it, so let me suggest four positive things that will come out of this historic economic tragedy.
#1 “Sheltering at home” for 6-8 weeks might help us all slow down. For the vast majority, we’ve all been slowly heated in the waters of busyness to the point where we think it is normal. During my recent conversation with the executive director of an industry association, this person said, “I’m in favor of anything that will help us all slow down.” This person was fully convinced that our “normal” pace is not healthy. Perhaps this person was right. One other individual I spoke to was “forced” to ignore work for two weeks. His company furloughed individuals and sternly warned them NOT to check emails while furloughed because the company could be sued if furloughed workers were actually working. The national market manager that told me this story did so from his personal cell phone while preparing to paint a room in his house. No work for him. Like many of us, he had to slow down.
#2 Interacting face-to-face with other human beings is important. I know that many of you introverts are loving the forced isolation, but even you must admit that after a week or more seeing no one, it would be nice to be able to at least go somewhere where you can actually see and talk to other human beings besides those with whom you are confined to quarters. My favorite example of this are all of the technologically savvy young people who live on their phones. As long as they have their phones, they’re content. Come to find out, many of these now homebound young ones are now MISSING SCHOOL, not so much for the academics, but more for the interaction with their peers – even if it is sitting next to each other with their heads in their phones! People matter. COVID is helping us remember.
#3 COVID, or more accurately, the RESPONSE to COVID, is helping us all remember just how quickly we can lose our freedoms. For many of us, we lost the freedom to go to work, we lost the freedom to freely assemble, we lost the freedom to travel where and when we like, we lost the freedom to walk around without a mask, we lost the freedom to walk up a grocery store aisle in either direction, and we’ve even lost the freedom to worship where and when we like. Some even argue that we’ve lost our freedom of speech! Try asserting the opinion that the actual COVID virus is not significantly more dangerous than a normal flu. Try it once; you’ll not do it again! Of course, most of these freedoms will be lost only temporarily and for a good cause – our safety. But please remember what King Mongkut (Yul Brynner in The King and I) said about finding safety from others, “Might they not protect me out of all I own?” Or take it from Ben Franklin – “Those who would give up essential liberty, to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.” 
#4 And finally, COVID is helping us all see just how quickly life can change … and this is a good thing … because it is true. We think we are safe, we think we are secure, we think that life will always be this way, we think we are in control. We are wrong. There’s only One in control – assuming you believe in God – and we are not Him. This might be a scary thought for some – to not be in control. But, it is better to live in an unpleasant reality than a dangerous fantasy. COVID is helping us deal with reality.
So, there’s a lot of good coming from this pandemic. Here’s to a more modestly paced life, here’s to time with friends and family, here’s to liberty, here’s to remembering Who’s in charge … and here’s to your health and safety and a return to a more “normal” North American heat treat market.
