not too long ago, i heard someone tell the story of her grandmother whose husband was dying from cancer. unable to cope with caring for him and their children while managing their farm, she asked her parents to come from their home several hours away to help her. her parents took the train from a town near their home in oklahoma to assist their daughter, the storyteller's grandmother. the train was carrying a large contingent of soldiers from kansas to an army base in texas before they were to be deployed to fight in the first world war. several of the soldiers were infected with the so-called spanish flu, and the couple traveling to help their daughter caught the flu. both of them died after arriving at their daughter's home. fortunately for the daughter that they had come to help, she, her children, and husband escaped infection but the death of her parents, for which she blamed herself, colored the remainder of her life. as the storyteller told it, her grandmother always had an air of sadness about her with her parents' death gnawing at her until she died.
as i recall that story, i think of our present situation, of how many might share this woman's story from back in the early 20th century. because the virus' long incubation period inside one's body allows it to spread while one is unaware of being infected, the virus that is causing this current pandemic is particularly cruel. while we go merrily on our way, we may be infecting our loved ones and anyone else with whom we come in contact without knowing that we are in the early stages of infection. once symptoms appear, if they ever do, one infected person may have already spread the virus to many others, who in turn are spreading it to still more people.
as i heard on the news the other day, many of the current infections have been caused by small gatherings of close friends and families in private homes rather than by mingling with large numbers of people in public places. certainly, crowded bars and restaurants and events like mr. trump's rallies and white house functions are still spreading the disease, but the intimate get-togethers that we crave may also be fueling the rapid increase in infection that we are now experiencing. so many of us long for the return of what we thought was normality not so long ago. we want to travel, to meet new people, to shop, to go out to eat, to go to a movie or a live show. we want to go to church, to go to parties with our friends and family. we are tired of wearing masks and angry with those who refuse to wear them. we want to go to the grocery store and not have to worry about being exposed to the virus.
how do we find our way back to our old "normal?" will the experience of living through this pandemic color the rest of our lives as it did the life of the grandmother who lost her parents to the flu in 1918? a friend of ours has said that she believes that covid-19 will be with us for a long time and that we must learn to live with it as best we can. she's probably right. it would help if we had a national policy for slowing its spread and could rely on what we hear from our leaders. we need honest folks at all levels of government who will listen to the advice of scientific and medical experts and reinforce what those who know best are telling them and us. we need to know and follow the best practices to keep from becoming infected ourselves and to prevent others from being infected. we need to stop whining about "individual freedom" and think of what's best for those around us, even if we have to endure some inconvenience for a time.
may we find common cause in dealing with this virus. may we follow the advice of those in the medical and scientific communities. may we work together to keep one another as safe as possible. may we as a nation come to the aid of those who are suffering economic loss as a result of the sacrifices necessary to slow the spread of covid-19. may we act in concert with other nations of the world rather than isolating ourselves from them and acting in selfish, confrontational ways towards them. may we support one another, realizing that we all suffer because of the havoc this pandemic is causing. shalom.
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