We are waiting for the world to end. We are waiting for the world to begin. The pandemic is getting worse around the world with notable exceptions, Canada being one of them. My province, BC, appears to be doing particularly well, and Washington state just over the border is reeling just like so many other American states under another spike in Covid 19 cases.
But now it is summer, and nature goes on, as usual, blissfully unaware of our exalted human existence. This earth has been around, they say, for around five billion years. Homo sapiens, more or less in our present form, but previously taller and probably healthier and better looking, only arrived on the scene at around 200,000 years ago. The earth has already seen the dinosaurs all come and go, and several ice ages later...
I have heard some people refer to this pandemic as an existential threat to humanity. Ha! If only! a less than two percent morbidity rate ain't gonna wipe us out. Not now, not ever. True, a lot of people are getting sick, and the deaths are troubling. but at the very worst, some of us are just going to have to put our plans on hold, and maybe even leave them on hold for some time to come.
Of course we are going to get through it. We are genetically, and divinely, programmed to survive, to overcome, and to thrive. We tend to be at our best in times of adversity, and it is adversity that transforms us into better and stronger people. Yes, it can also harm and damage us, but the role of the strong is to serve, protect and look after the weak and vulnerable. We have, during these times of ease, made ourselves very soft and very useless. It is time now to toughen up and become adults. We, or should I say, our forebears, have all been through worse than this. Should this even toughen some of us a little and teach us some humility and kindness then it won't all have happened in vain.
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