This blog comes out of a conversation I have had with a couple of different people this last week.The third wave of COVID is here. The number of cases among younger people are rising. The ICUs in hospital are at capacity. While vaccines help, they can’t keep up to the risking cases.
Younger people are scared. You can hear it in their voices as they say it is time to reevaluate who gets the vaccine to younger age group. Some are even saying that seniors should just be told to stay home. When I first heard that note of panic, I wondered why? Why was it so pronounced? After all the third wave of the Spanish flu was the worst, so what is happening now should not be a surprise.
As a friend pointed out those people born in the 60s or later in this country have never had to face a wide spread threat of serious illness. They are now being faced with an illness over which they have no control, which can land them in the hospital or even cause death. Yes that is scary,
Those of us who were born in the 50s or earlier, remember times before vaccinations became a way of life. We remember polio, diphtheria, red measles, German measles, shopping cough, chicken pox, etc., etc., One of my friends has had diabetes since the ago of 15 as a result of chicken pox. Another was born deaf as a result of her mother catching red measles before she was born. Polio panicked everyone for many summers causing swimming pools to be shut sown and schools closed in hot spots as the researchers searched frantically for both the cause and a cure. Other of the prevalent diseases required quarantines. It was a way of life. It is obvious that those younger people are not learning from the past history of the Spanish Flu, nor are they taking to heart what happened in the life of the elders in this society.
Of course this isn’t a new phenomenon. You only have to look at the story of the kings in the Old Testament to see the people there getting rid of bad kings only to replaced them after a period time with new and better kings, who went down the same path. Obviously this problem of not listening to what has happened in the past is not a new one! To give this an Easter twist, Jesus was crucified because he spoke out against the power of Rome. Since that time we have seen that same scenario acted out over and over. Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. are two who come quickly to mind, but there are an untold number of others.
All that wisdom is ignored .....
Lynn, I too remember other plagues and the fact that my mother's two little sisters died during one of them....the dreaded diphtheria....always left me wondering what those aunts would have been like...the cousins I might have had.. I remember the Toronto cousins escaping the city during the summers of polio and one of my work colleagues ended up with her legs forever braced and 'walking' on crutches. I am deeply concerned at present for my children and grown grandchildren out there in the world, as yet not vaccinated. They, like so many others, are in the eye of the storm. Mercifully, my husband and I have been but so many others are in a race against time towards the 'unfinished' finish line of that privilege and I pray for their safe arrival. We have teachers and other essential workers in our own family and I would have been happy to pass my needle to them and just stay hunkered down. Yesterday I discovered an ancient prayer by either Teresa of Avila or Therese of Lisieux. It brought me a measure of peace so I share it here:
ReplyDeleteMay today there be peace within.
May you trust God that you are exactly where you are meant to be.
May you not forget the infinite possibilities that are born of faith.
May you use those gifts that you have received and pass on the love that has
been given to you.
May you be content knowing you are a child of God.
Let this presence settle in your bones and allow your soul the FREEDOM
to sing, dance, praise and love.
It is there for each and everyone of us.
Whatever your age, this prayer contains blessing and strength to face the challenges ahead. Take heart.
Judy Imrie