In March, I published a story titled History in the Making | COVID-19. Reading through it today, it feels like we are back where we started, but with more cases. I began this post in the late spring naively thinking I would use it in a few months to reflect on the COVID-19 pandemic.
Well, that hasn’t happened. I may have also commented last December that I had a good feeling about 2020, so there’s that. I do not see a career as a fortune-teller unfolding in my future.
Once I started writing, things I have seen and read during this time quickly tumbled from my consciousness onto the page.
Humility
Humility is a modest view of our importance, the quality of being humble. Humility is helpful for self-improvement. If we combine humility with motivation, we can overcome obstacles without letting our disappointments defeat us.
I am humbled by witnessing some of our greatest human virtues being put to the test - gratefulness, patience, faith and courage. I never stopped to think about how many people are involved in keeping my world turning. I take so much for granted.
- health care workers, their faces rubbed raw from long shifts behind a mask
- emergency services
- pharmaceutical industry
- transportation services
- tradespeople
- education workers
- food producers
- postal services
- financial institutions
- getting a haircut
- how much human contact adds to the quality of our lives
- freedom to travel near or far
- blessing of my family having employment
- don’t feel the need to boast
- put others first
- enjoy making others happy
- don’t believe life owes you anything
- see everyone as equal
Humanity
Humanity is the entire human race. It is also a word for the qualities that make us human; the ability to love, be creative, charitable, kind and compassionate.
All of humanity is going through this mass trauma regardless of age, financial status, ethnicity or geographic location.
Humanity at its finest:
- red hearts displayed in windows and emergency vehicles driving by hospitals with their lights flashing to salute the workers inside
- military staff caring for residents in struggling care homes
- people offering free childcare to those in need
- checking in on shut-ins, bringing them groceries and medications
- countries sharing emergency supplies and medical staff with other nations
- relatives connecting with loved ones through long term care home windows
- doctors taping pictures of themselves to their PPE so that their patients can see what they look like
Human Nature
Human nature is the feeling that we need to protect our loved ones, as well as self-preservation.
The fear of what we don’t understand, can’t control or don’t feel comfortable with can make us act differently. The survival of the fittest mentality makes some individuals feel invincible and dismissive of the needs of others. It is instinct working on us from deep within. This innate human characteristic can bring out the best and the worst in people. When you add a competitive person and the anxiety of a stressful situation together, unexpected results can occur. People can find themselves wrestling a pack of toilet paper away from another shopper.
Loss of one’s humanity occurs when love and respect turn to hate for entire groups of people.
Human nature can drive people to:
- stockpile or hoard supplies
- price gouge; raising the price of essential items to exorbitant rates during times of crisis
I wouldn’t have imagined being told we couldn’t see our parents, children and grandchildren. A large party is one thing, but being asked by authorities to report people for seeing their families is a foreign concept to us.
I won’t look at toilet paper, wipes, hand sanitizer or masks in the nonchalant way I once did. I seriously don’t think I’ve ever worn a mask before except when I tried to sand a table, let alone wear one every time I leave the house.
I did not fully understand how a collective experience can forever change a generation. If you look back to people born in 1900 and think about the world events over the next fifty years, you realize that half of those 50 years were spent living through extreme events like World War l, the Spanish Flu, the Great Depression and World War ll.
In addition, many of these people had immigrated to this country and were adjusting to this monumental change in their lives. No other generation has ever lived through so much turmoil. For many people born in the past seventy years, this pandemic is the first time we have been involved in a world event of this magnitude. It is something current generations will always carry with them.
We have been on various lockdowns, closures and restrictions in recent months. Some days it feels like we have been slugging it out in the COVID trenches for longer than a mere eight months. In that time, many have gone through things they never thought they would ever need to. We used to talk about the weather. Now we talk about the number of COVID cases. The world is holding its’ breath, waiting to see if the promised vaccine will materialize in 2021.
At times like this, the strength of the human spirit shines through, and humanity has the humility to pick up the fallen and carry them forward, and hopefully, the world's moral compass will be reset. I have a good feeling about 2021.....
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Thanks, Norma
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