I believe, in fact I know, that to lose someone you love, through death or for any other reason, is the most devastating and debilitating experience you will ever suffer. It cripples you emotionally and physically, leaving you in a void that only time, and acceptance, can free you from. It changes you in ways you wouldn’t expect, it makes you more introspective and deliberate about life, and what really matters to you. The pain of that loss never goes away, it’s like a trophy you can never get rid of; you can only keep it on that shelf inside your memory, inside your heart, taking it down to dust it off, every so often. The pain lessens eventually, but the absence never does, because of all the reminders that are ever present. A song, a photograph, a certain smell, holidays, a movie, so many triggers that won’t let you ever forget that love, and all it still encompasses, in your life.

All that I’ve just described has been happening since we started walking upright, but has accelerated considerably in the last 2 years, since the plague manifested itself, in all its forms, worldwide. It is estimated that at least 4 and a half million people have died, and over 800 thousand in the US, so far. The number is probably over 1 million in the US, with all the Covid-related deaths. This is heavy stuff! More people have died in the US already, than from the plague of 1918, and we unfortunately have much more to go. A total 675 thousand Americans died then, in a span of 3 years, compared to today! Why is this happening, with all the advances in medicine now, compared to a time when penicillin was not even yet created? We’ve had the cure for almost a year now, widely and freely available to everyone. Well, not everyone. In some poor countries it’s not as easily available, like Haiti, for example, where only 36% of the population has been vaccinated! With all the wealth in the world, with access to anywhere in the world not being an issue, why can’t we rid ourselves of this killer? Why? Why? Why?

Well, to begin with, back in those days people were more trusting of government, of science, and much more afraid of dying than we are today. There were not as many contrasting views and opinions on how to vanquish the virus. Like so many other things since those early days of the 20th century, we’ve managed to desensitize even death, denied it of its mystery, and some of us are prepared to willingly die, believing in outlandish conspiracies and getting caught up in political dogma! Yes, we’ve reverted back to a time when witches were real and the earth was flat, and evil omens decided our fates. We absorb information sent to us by unemployed, irresponsible people mostly, sitting on couches in their parent’s basement, fingers all covered in yellow stains from eating Doritos, typing and spewing out the most ridiculous nonsense one could ever imagine, like toilet paper in tacos meat. It eventually reaches mainstream news and becomes fact! That’s how pathetic, parts of our our society have become.

And so we suffer, and then we die! From ignorance, from laziness, from being part of herd mentality, following fake information like lemmings. We die! There’s no good ending here. Just stating facts. If you are stupid, uninformed, too lazy to listen to science and reason, you die! Goodbye!

“Things fall apart, the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.”
“The Second Coming”, by W.B. Yeats.

Glen