The news has been so frightening this past month or so. Omicron is making a huge impact in Alberta right now. PSR tests are in short supply and so only a few right now can find out that they are positive right now. The promised rapid tests that were to be available at drug stores are not available. Reported numbers are at record highs and we are told that they represent only a 1/10th of possible cases. It is quite frightening.
I write this to almost everyone who has had enough bad news, who just wishes that this whole thing would be over. And I guess it is to them I can merely say, "Don't panic." The world has been through horrible times in the past and has survived. It will move forward again.
I think of a few incidents during the past century which revealed the resilience of the world. Take for instance at the start of the century. The world had gone through a horrible world war. Forty million lives were lost. That is forty million people who had dreams, goals, and concerns were wiped out. Then to make matters worse after the war came the Spanish flu which during the next few years killed about another 40 million people. That is a lot of people in a world that had about 2.5 billion people.
A few years later the world seemed to recover and all seemed to be well. Then the financial crisis happened and most everyone was struggling. People lost jobs. People had to halt careers and begin working at less glamourous positions to try to make ends meet. Many children had to quit school early and enter the workforce because families needed the money. For ten years, this struggle meant that lives were put on hold and possibilities were held at bay.
Then came the Second World War. Up to 85 million people were killed. That means 3 out of 100 people on the planet died because of war. Again many in our world would have to hang out and ride out the crisis.
I say this not to diminish what we are going through. The last two years have been horrendous. Who could imagine not being able to meet with families, not being able to go to mosque or church, not being able to go to musicals and plays. I know I have suffered and I am sure you have as well. None of us will think fondly back to this time when we have had to separate from others. Yet like other virus and wars of the past, these things do have a limited life span. The plague lasted many years, but it has disappeared. The four years of WWI and the six years of WW2 may have seemed like an eternity but they did end. We maybe in the fifth wave of COVID now and who knows how many more waves will come. The events from the 20th century were all awful. COVID is awful. But we will get through it. We just need patience. Now is the time not to panic. Blessings.
