It's not worth risking lives to 'just stay on schedule'

Nobody wants a pandemic, certainly not one that kills hundreds of thousands and delays the college football season.

That was certainly the mindset last week of Oklahoma State coach Mike Gundy, who indicated that May 1 would be a good time to get back to football and who wants his players on campus even if it's deserted because "continuing the economy in this state" requires his team playing games.

"We've got to have a plan," Gundy said, "...so let's just stay on schedule."

Uh, let's update the scoreboard here:

COVID-19, OSU 0.

Go Cowboys!!!

Coach, I understand that we must get back to the business of living. But — follow me on this — we can't do that if we are all dead. So we must stay at home — pause life to preserve life — until the experts say otherwise in regard to this once-in-a-century sacrifice that we hopefully will never see the likes of again.

So, yes, we need sports again. But we also need almost every other taken-for-granted detail of our routine, from schools to restaurants to libraries to concerts to Costco grand openings.

And, frankly, we need back things that have been missing most or all of our lives: compassion, decency, humanity, sense of community.

But we can start by accentuating the positive and eliminating the negative at home. We can start by appreciating what's around us and by revisiting the simple delights that surround us.

Play Rack-O with your kids.

Watch any season of "The Larry Sanders Show" on HBO on Demand.

Talk to long-distance friends. In the old days, these were known as "phone calls."

Send your aunt or uncle a long note. In the old days, this was known as "writing a letter."

Make your own pizza, and when that fails, order one for delivery.

Dig out your old baseball card...