They say that the great equalizer is death and taxes. At least they say that only 2 things in life are certain, death and taxes. I see it as death at least doesn’t discriminate, even if you have an excess of money and access to exceptional health care, you will eventually die, young or old.
In the light of COVID-19 or whatever they’re calling it now. The virus is definitely an equalizer. It has affected the lives of almost everyone, in one way or another. Even if you haven’t contracted the virus, you are impacted by the quarantines or business shut downs.
People of all ages, races, and gender are getting infected by this virus and some die, and some recover. I am not trying to be trite about it but the fact remains that despite the best care that is out there, some of the people who have the virus have died.
It’s not like when AIDS came out and the common statement was it was for the “queers” or the “blacks”. Assuming that AIDS came out of someone having sex with a monkey, of course it had to be a black person (probably gay too) right? It couldn’t be a straight white person that got the first case of the disease, right? Then it was the “fags” or “drug users” who contracted it, it wouldn’t impact the average person.
Now AIDS has infected millions of people around the globe, gay, straight, black, white. No one was safe from this disease. Even now in the light of COVID-19, the threat of AIDS has diminished.
Every so often, there comes a virus that kills millions, look back in the history of mankind, we had the FLU, then the SPANISH FLU, AIDS, SARS, now COVID-19. Each time the pandemic seems worse than before.
Okay, I know that you are thinking that AIDS doesn’t fit into this category, it’s not spread by coughing or sneezing. You can’t catch AIDS by shaking hands with someone infected, like the rest of the viruses. You’re right, but when it comes to pandemics and such, AIDS in the beginning caused a huge scare in the majority of the populace and it wasn’t until a decade or so later did we understand the full ramifications of the disease, so I am lumping it in with the rest of the viruses.
Over time we tend to forget that these previous versions of pandemic viruses existed or we minimize them. The truth is that history always has and always will repeat itself. If you look at the population of the earth now, compared to when the previous pandemics happened, the density of populations and the ease of travel now compared to before, you could easily see that the previous pandemics would have been far worse.
On the other side of the coin, we have a greatly improved medical and science system that will allow us to defeat this particular virus and allow us to get on with life. Sure there will be a lot changes that we’ll have to get used to before it gets back to normal. The economy, which was teetering on the edge of disaster, has been battered even more, but it will get better.
We are a resilient species and are able to overcome almost anything set in our path. We just need to understand that this is just a speed bump in life, that we can get over and resume speeding along our lives like we used to.
In the mean time, take the opportunity to relax, recharge, and maybe learn something new. We’re not out of the woods yet, and when the restrictions lift, there will be a secondary outbreak of this virus, but we can use this chance to learn what we did wrong, or too slow, and flatten the curve faster.
So for now, grab a lemonade and enjoy the heck out what life has dished out for now.