As a devout sun worshipper, I loathe winter and everything that accompanies it – cold weather, darkness around 5 p.m., cold weather, snow, heavy clothing, cold weather, a perpetually dirty car, and cold weather. However, I will admit that the past winter was refreshingly mild, and thus my snow removal bill was thankfully low.
Someone once said something about how much the “little things” matter, and I guess I can understand that because the little things began exciting me at the end February, when daylight became noticeably more prevalent in the early evening. This phenomenon gave way to the real excitement I felt on March 8 with the arrival of daylight saving time, which for me is one of the best days of the year because it’s a harbinger of spring.
The next sign that spring was nigh was the reopening of the Fulton Dairy Queen after being closed for the winter. And then spring officially arrived on March 19. Shortly thereafter the daffodils and forsythia burst into glorious yellow bloom, buds began appearing on the trees, and suddenly the robins were showing up on the lawn.
Spring! A time of rebirth, colorful plants and trees, birdsongs, and the happy cries of children playing outside after having been cooped up inside during the winter. What a great time to be alive!
WAIT A MINUTE! SOMETHING IS TERRIBLY WRONG WITH THAT PICTURE!
Yes, the plants are blooming and the birds are singing, but many children are still inside. And we can’t really in good conscience celebrate rebirth in a spring covered by a horrifying black blanket of myriad deaths, rampant uncertainty, and paralytic fear. The COVID-19 coronavirus has crippled the world by killing more than 100,000 people and infecting at least 1.49 million across about 184 countries and territories. Scientists worldwide are working around the clock in a desperate attempt to find a cure or vaccine, but so far no Jonas Salk miracle has eventuated.
Sadly this spring is one dominated by statistics of death. BUT at this writing the Dr. Deborah Birx and Dr. Anthony Fauci, both members of the Trump administration’s Coronavirus Task Force, have given us something we almost forgot about. Recently they once again looked down the long, dark tunnel created by the virus and consulted their models, and they saw a glimmer of HOPE! Despite the continually increasing death toll in New York, the number of new hospitalizations has declined, and that’s really good news from the place that was the epicenter of the disease in the USA. Grab that glimmer and hold on to it.
And there’s something else we all need – a mantra to get us through this difficult time. To obtain this, we go back to Sept. 30, 1859, when in a speech Abraham Lincoln told the following story: “It is said an Eastern monarch once charged his wise men to invent him a sentence, to be ever in view, and which should be true and appropriate in all times and situations. They presented him the words: “‘And this, too, shall pass away.’”
Write those six words down and put them somewhere that you will see them every day. Commit them to memory and say them and think them often. Let’s HOPE it will not be long until COVID-19 passes away so that we all can get back to some semblance of normalcy. In the meantime the spring flowers will continue to bloom, and the birds will go on singing. Let’s HOPE that soon we will once again hear the excited voices of children back on the playgrounds.
Stay home. Practice social distancing. Wash your hands. Don’t touch your face.
Take care and be well.
