The Week Before the World Changed

The year 2020 will forever be seared into our collective consciousness. It started out like any other year - except for the death of a famous basketball star in a helicopter crash and the impeachment of a president. But what followed was far from normal: shutdowns, protests, the death of an innocent man at the hands of police officers, a president barking on Twitter, an election that was far from normal or peaceful, and the rising death toll as we faced an unknown threat out of the blue in the form of a pandemic.

As the year progressed, we were told to prepare for judgment. Stores began to run out of simple staples, such as toilet paper, paper towels and other needed cleaning supplies. Then, food supplies began to dwindle as the day approached. It was late February. Schools had closed down, bars were shuttered, bowling alleys, theaters and gyms suddenly closed, restaurants turned to carry out and delivery only and grocery stores and retailers began to limit the number of customers inside the stores at one time. Only those businesses deemed as essential services were allowed to remain in business. Hospitals prepared for the onslaught of patients, government offices closed and homes became offices. Streets became deserted as museums and other attractions also shuttered. By mid-March the world had changed.

In a heartbeat, it seemed, we were all living out our last day on Earth. We all began to realize that death does not literally mean dying and judgment did not need to be ominous. It can be a wake-up call, perhaps signaling a new beginning or heightened awareness. It could be a good thing.

It is something the residents of the South recently experienced as a cold wind blew through and dumped snow amounts rarely seen by anyone in parts of Texas, where residents were faced with empty store shelves, loss of power and massive shutdowns as people hunkered at home to avoid icy roads and deep snow all too familiar to residents of New England, or Colorado, where I live.

The end-of-the-world-as-I-knew-it moments kept coming back to me through most of 2020 and the early days of this year, where we still live in the shadow of the last. Months heavy with death, judgment and a loss of control. Near constant reports of increasing cases gave way to a summer of protest and reckoning as the West burned and America became crippled with anxiety over the election. I began to feel crippled by uncertainty and stasis. By nature, I have never considered myself a control freak. But, in a year without linear progress, when planning anything simple outside the house was punished by a rising line on a graph and a newly-developed color-coded system of closures, I felt trapped in a state of suspension. My life was put on hold for the foreseeable future and my usual coping tools - community, access to nature and a relentless focus on finding solutions - were out of reach. What was going to happen? I needed guidance.

Entire civilizations have sought clarity and comfort in organized religion during times of strife, but even churches were shut down as a result of the pandemic, being declared super spreaders. What could be the antidote to a year that felt like swinging at a piñata, blind folded and dizzy and finding out the piñata may or may not be a hologram?

Many adjectives come to mind when trying to describe the historical reality that materialized when it became clear that the pandemic would reach epidemic proportions: Surreal, scary, revelatory and humbling are all real and appropriate descriptions. Another term that appeared frequently in news reports was unprecedented. It is understandable that Covid-19 felt unprecedented. Humanity has confronted pandemic events many times through the centuries. Looking at our current situation through a historical lens can offer us another adjective: hopeful.

In the fifth century B.C., the plague of Athens killed off 25 percent of the population while the citizens faced a siege from Sparta. Five centuries later, Roman soldiers returned to Rome from Parthia carrying a mysterious plague that wiped out 10 percent of the population. Less than a century later, a transcontinental pandemic killed up to 5,000 per day at its height. In 541, the Bubonic Plague - also known as the Black Death - arrived in Europe (brought through rats onboard ships docked in Constantinople) and wiped out over 100 million people. It took nearly two centuries for the population of Europe to return to its pre-pandemic numbers,

Today, watching and reading the myriad sources of information and misinformation concerning Covid-19 and its domino-like impact on virtually all aspects of our lives, it is difficult not to reflect upon the stark similarities between past pandemics and this one. And, like today, they were accompanied by fear-induced conspiracy theories, quack cures, missteps by government officials, the persecution of specific groups and the need to lay blame, regardless of its unfounded nature.

One common factor is the interconnected nature of seemingly disparate phenomena that converged to create "perfect storms" of disease. Situations in which diverse and naturally separate ecosystems artificially converge, the massive movement - or forced displacement - of human and/or animal populations, environmental exploitation and changes in climate have all been substantial factors in pandemics throughout history.

In November 1918, the influenza pandemic raged across the nation and people sheltered at home - much as we did during the early days of the Covid-19 epidemic - and people sought creative ways to stay entertained. I turn to reading and writing, getting my thoughts out to the world via my laptop as I sit back and realize we have been here before. Even before the influenza outbreak a century ago. Yet we have managed to survive to fight another battle.

That is why we have many reasons for hope.