Living In The Moment

Has there ever been a “time” like this time?  Not really.  While history may repeat itself on occasion, it never repeats itself in the same time period.  Nor does it precisely replicate one historical event in quite the same way as it did the first-time around.  Famines, plagues, economic disasters, even “stay-at-home” quarantines have been experienced before our time, and there is little doubt that such things will occur in another time long after this time has passed.

The Plague of Athens (circa. 429 BC), probably Typhus or Typhoid Fever, took 100,000 lives.  The Antonine Plague in the Roman Empire (circa. 165), probably Smallpox, took an estimated 5 to 10 million lives.  Over 75 million lives (60% of the population of Europe) were lost in what is now called the Black Plague in 1331-1353.  Ebola, measles, influenza, bubonic plague, H1N1, Yellow Fever, Cholera and many other epidemics have had their day—and now, Covid-19—a worldwide pandemic, has taken over 120,500 lives (as of April 14, 2020).

I remember a summer in the early 1950’s when infantile paralyses (polio) was rampant in our community.  The doctor who brought me into this world lost his eldest son that year to the disease.   I can remember my mother’s fear for us. We weren’t allowed to go swimming in the brook and our contact with other children was limited.  The first  U.S. polio epidemic occurred in 1894.  Salk’s vaccine didn’t arrive on the scene until 1953.  

Yes, there have been times like this time before, but none were quite the same as this time.  The historical perspective doesn’t make it any easier for us, but it ought to give us hope, and it ought to help us do what needs to be done right now.  

In 1928, prosperity (for the privileged) was not just an economic condition; it was a state of mind.  Everything was “great, terrific, incredible,” etc.  Then suddenly, on October 24, 1929, the economic world crashed with a sudden and brutal shattering of hope.  People found themselves in an altered world of joblessness and poverty.  My father’s family was not part of that prosperity, but  were deeply affected by what we now call “The Great Depression.”  My Dad was 11 or 12 years old in October 1929.  He made it through, though not without great difficulties, and lived for another 70 years.  When I look at the photograph of him taken in 1929, it is apparent that “The Great Depression” was not about to do him in.  Nor will the present pandemic and the economic downturn of the present moment do us in.  We, too, will live through it, but only if we do what needs to be done right now.

Dad and his younger brother (my name sake) Harold
in 1929