The other way of human progress:
Eventually things will come into perspective as the realization sinks that this is a pandemic with very low mortality for which we need to react collectively vis-à-vis spending a couple of enjoyable weeks with our loved ones (and /or with Netflix) in quarantine.
This is not going to be the virus that will kill you (but it might just bring you closer to your family and loved ones and put things that matter first)
This is not going to be the virus that will crush our national and global healthcare systems (but it will definitely help making sure that we are very ready for the big one when it comes about).
This is not going to be the virus that incites the zombie apocalypse (though I’m quite certain it will start one day, in the Mission District in downtown SF, if they don’t take care of the homeless scattered around in their drug infested streets)
This is not going to be the force-major event that will bankrupt our companies (good companies withstand bad times. Separately, even for good companies, this is a darn good exercise making sure you have a contingency plan in place and that you are well capitalized to ride a few bad months).
This will not end in months long quarantine.
(There may be a couple of weeks in. quarantine in some places, maybe it will be all encompassing, maybe it won’t. I’m also not sure why people got so much toilet paper but I guess that’s besides the point:)
Why am I so certain that this will pass — simply because absenteeism is the other way of human progress. We need to be connected and having long weeks without connection (even if it is to spare our hospitals and refrain from infecting our elderly) will not only jeopardize our mental health but also will crush our utilities and our infrastructure — it is an impossible price to pay. It won’t happen. Not with this virus anyways.
It is just a warning shot, for all of us, to do better, care more for the other — poor and elderly, care for our families, care less about money.
Life will resume, beautiful people will walk down the streets, shop, enjoy themselves and their loved ones, we will travel for business, travel for pleasure and enjoy the time we have here as long as we have it here because — we are, after all, mortals.
As says the alien to the priest in my favorite movie — The Fifth Element — “Time not important, only life important”
If you agree — share.
