Our daily lives have been disrupted but there is a chance some of us will never have to live through this again. I have heard my grandparents stories of the Spanish influenza and read of the outbreaks during the civil war of measles and rubella occurring in our various families.
Life was never really good, but it was bearable. Wasn't it? We all got along pretty well and went to school or work. We all looked forward to the weekends and holidays. We never thought of life without sit in services at restaurants or not visiting the sick or family.
There was a time though most Americans went through this type of life. Before WWI most did not travel except occasionally, they stayed at home in the city or on the farm. Only a few went to work outside or even college.
After WWII, there was a surge in going out every day to the stores and to libraries or museums. Work was essential and school mandatory. Life was provided for us through the films and shows of normalcy of having a job and a home.
Most people don't realize this was also a dream, but alot of people lived it anyways. The reality was waking up one day and being told we had to stay at home and rest. Relax was not one of the words used, but get rest. Rest for what? Walking all day to work and back or finding all the transport gone?
At least we had food deliveries and bottled water. Some even got their coffee everyday, even if they had to walk through a forest to the local place. There was a time standing in line at a store outside was also normal. Getting groceries was never really normal until the expansion of the credit card system allowed the universe to act as if money was not an issue.
Now I wonder if it is being printed for our amusement with a future expectation of receiving back what was put out. Daily thermometer checks and being yelled at if one stands to close is not going to go away, but carelessness is an issue we will all have to decide in the near future.
For some, hand washing was a new idea. For others, they had discovered hand sanitizer as an answer not to spend too much time in the toilet area as it was just to crowded and dirty. Carrying extra masks in our purses or wallets should also not be discontinued.
There will be another wave, even if is not noticed. Diseases have a way of lying dormant for years and then reappearing as if they had not gone away. Exposure has already occurred for the world and it is only a matter of time before all experience this novel virus, even if it is just a sniffle and a light cough.
When should an economy take the kind of hit, the world did in December and January?
The virus was already being treated in China as early as August, and immediate deaths outside China were also reported.
They waited to the last moment to keep us all from falling into the types of collapse that previous cultures have been forced to disappear. Sudden widespread disease are one of the main causes for a culture or country to just up and die, not just in the Americas but also in the parts of the world, archaeologists are just now finding evidence of existing.
So lets exhale and take in the fact wee survived with the knowledge there is more to come but perhaps without taking someone's else's life bot physically and emotionally. Too many families have no way of knowing where they will be next year or when they will face the same types of hatred now being provided even in a shopping trip.
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