The New York Times reported today (5/21/21) that while victory over Covid has not yet arrived, it is growing close. More than 60 percent of American adults have received at least one vaccine shot and the share is growing by about two percentage points per week. In the space of a few weeks, I’ve moved from hiding in my home to a dinner with friends in a restaurant! (I know! A real restaurant! With sit down tables and
chairs and menus!) What seemed inconceivable even six months ago has really happened. We have several safe vaccines that work and that have been successfully distributed to almost all Americans who want a vaccine. Really, it’s a miracle.
And now we are left to re-emerge. To try to process this experience individually and as a whole. To determine what we’ve learned and how we can go forward hopefully wiser, better, kinder, gentler? After all, most of us have had a lot of time to slow down, to self-reflect, to examine our priorities.
I’ve learned a few lessons (or relearned as the case may be since I seem to need several rounds of reminding on every lesson). One is that my long list of things to accomplish doesn’t seem much shorter (is the basement reorganized? Have I exercised each day? Changed my diet? Alas, the answer is no to all of the above). But agonizing over what I haven’t done is no way to re-emerge. I need to move forward with a renewed sense of what matters and energy to make a difference. After all, I and my family are lucky to be alive.
This is not the first time that humanity has experienced pandemic. There’s the 14 century’s Black Plague. The Spanish Flu in 1918 killed more people than the plague, more than WW I and II combined (50 million people died worldwide in the Spanish flu). As of today, 3.4 million COVID-19 deaths are reported worldwide). And yet, people re-emerged. They slowly took the masks off. They went back to work. They went back to dreaming of and working for a better world.
I wonder what your experience has been? What makes you hopeful as you begin to re-emerge? What lessons will you try to apply from here? How do you help spread fresh hope in those around you?
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