Friday, May 3, 2024

Covid-19 was the 5th most fatal pandemic in the history of plagues so far. We have lost between 7 and 35 million, and that number will continue to increase, unfortunately. The number 1 plague was the Spanish Flu (1918-1920) with between 17-100 million deaths, followed by the bubonic plague, then HIV with 43 million so far, then the Black Death in the Middle Ages! Some believe it’s Biblical prophecy; some believe it’s nature’s way of preventing overpopulation. Whatever it is, the death and destruction has been catastrophic.

This is an era of no surprises, of impatience, when news and most services are so very immediate, or else! A time when we ingest, hardly digest, and eject everything in no time whatsoever. When we seldom pause to fully grasp the significance of events that at one time, would seem everlasting in their coverage. Mass shootings, hurricanes, earthquakes, wars, famine, yeah, yeah, yeah, so what? Been there, done that!

If you step back for a moment, you will realize that Covid-19 has taken a toll out on us. That we have changed as a society, our priorities have changed our outlook on life and love and mortality and our health and diet and politics! It has affected everything around us, with hardly anyone noticing, subtle changes. Too busy trying to make up for lost time, I suspect. We see sporting events, restaurants, movie theaters, bars filled to capacity. We’re back! But that Incendium Invidiae is there, that sense of resentment, lurking just below the surface.

We were confined, imprisoned in our own homes, our own cells. Denied attending funerals and weddings and sporting events and schools and churches, and our freedom, to a greater extent, was severely curtailed. Some of us became introspective, or withdrawn, maybe creative, some desperate, many more, despondent, and some of us, reflective. It has been taking a while for us to realize and accept the drastic changes and losses all about us. Some thrived, some jived, some died! The changes were psychological, neurological, emotional, and even spiritual, in many cases.

For me—even though I haven’t contracted the disease—it brought out the creativity in me. Living alone, isolated, I suddenly realized that I could put my thoughts down on paper, or on my iPad, in a cohesive, coherent and consistent manner! I was surprised the first time I shared my writings with someone I respected and the response was positive. I’ve never stopped writing since, and now feel confident enough to share my writings with anyone who will listen to me. What a ting! So, in some ways the plague opened me up, expanded my horizons.

But being confined also invited that Incendium Invidiae, that Flame of Resentment, in too many of us! It brought out in a more vivid manner, xenophobia, stoked by a need to find and blame someone or something for the root cause of our suffering. Anyone with Asian features was fair game. It made our politics more toxic, it made our youths more exuberant and careless in their quest for thrills. It changed the way we worked, our workplace, our space in which to function. That resentment is obvious everywhere these days, a growing distrust of our most trusted institutions, for education, for law and order, for medicine, our judiciary, politics, for science, and even the way young men and women interact with each other! We can’t blame Covid alone for that last part; social media also has to share the blame.

Again, just in case anyone thinks that life is back to normal, it is not! I’ve said this before, that we could never totally escape the results of this rare but deadly disease, not without at least a limp! Too many lives were lost, too many people affected! I have loved ones who will carry the weight of this plague with them for the rest of their lives, in a physical sense, and that breaks my heart!

Whether we know, or want to acknowledge the fact that we have changed, that the world has changed, and undergone a seismic social shift, or rather, transformation, depends on one’s perspective, in my humble opinion. We live in a time of wonder, of amazing technological advancements, of head-spinning social changes and mores that are sometimes hard to accept, or adjust to. We all just have to slow down, take it all in, and try to make this new world a better place, for us, and for the future. And to never forget those who did not survive this horrible tragedy! So runs my dreams.

Glen