The world has gone mad! This corona virus pandemic is insane. Children are out of schools now while businesses are opening up and gathering them up together in a different location in order to feed them lunches in case they have no food. There is no hand sanitizer left in stores because people have bought it all out but have no need of it because government has required many businesses to shut down or implement "soft quarantines". People without babies are emptying shelves of baby formula in order to sell it in the black market while babies- who DEPEND ON THIS FOR SURVIVAL- may have to go without?!?! Churches are refusing to gather. People aren't allowed to travel over state lines? And what does everyone do in their spare time? Make toilet paper memes and wonder about what they will do with themselves. People are PANICKED. Things are intense.
Frankly, I'm conflicted. And maybe scratching my head a little bit too. Do I not know something? If you look at the numbers, the regular flu has a much higher death rate than the corona virus. I am not saying the Corona Virus is not a big deal...but I am saying people need to CHILL OUT A BIT. Media outlets are feeding the frenzy and we are letting them. And all of a sudden, we are living in a totalitarian government that dictates to us how we must live. I'm calling a foul.
Also- let's not forget: (You KNOW I have to say it!): Corona Virus has had 7, 098 fatalities worldwide since December 2019. Abortion has led to 125,000 fatalities worldwide EVERY.SINGLE.DAY. On the abortion link, you literally see that number moving up every second. You literally SEE death happening, in real time. Where is the panic there? Where is the intensity to prevent deaths? Where is the FRENZY people?!
I know that this whole Corona madness is going to have serious implications in every single sector of business and life for many months to come. It is hard to foresee how this is going to play out in the long run. The whole world has come to a screeching halt over this corona virus and frankly, I wonder if the effects of all this business shut-down will have more serious consequences than the actual illness for the American people.
While the world screeches to a halt, what will we do? We will continue to live as we live every day. I will continue to make food from scratch to feed my family, using the food I have on hand. We will continue to get as much sunshine as these March days allow. We will continue to wash hands and live life. We will continue to educate our children at home and go about the work that needs to be done every day. We will continue to squeeze in the pleasantries that can fill the cracks around the edges but probably not find more cracks to fill because this whole 'self quarantine' thing looks a lot like how we do life anyway.
The other thing we will be doing is praying for those people who are struggling during this time...
Not just those who are sick, but for those who are sick and those who, if sick, will have a more difficult time than others.
For those who are...
out of work
not getting paid
and all the repercussions that those two things entail ( ie *A HECKUVA LOT*)
wondering what to do with the children/grandchildren who don't have sitters and don't have school either
unable to get groceries
unable to worship
unable to feed their families or get necessities
unable to get surgeries
unable to fulfill obligations or activities they had looked forward to
who are stressed and scared and wondering what they are going to DO.
And also for those who have so many things TO DO- whose jobs are not on pause but on fast forward- nurses, doctors, etc.
There are many people in need of prayer.
I'll leave you with this quote from an essay C.S.Lewis wrote in 1948 called "Living In the Atomic Age" that I have been reflecting on...it really does apply.
"In one way we think a great deal too much of the atomic bomb. “How are we to live in an atomic age?” I am tempted to reply: “Why, as you would have lived in the sixteenth century when the plague visited London almost every year, or as you would have lived in a Viking age when raiders from Scandinavia might land and cut your throat any night; or indeed, as you are already living in an age of cancer, an age of syphilis, an age of paralysis, an age of air raids, an age of railway accidents, an age of motor accidents.”
In other words, do not let us begin by exaggerating the novelty of our situation. Believe me, dear sir or madam, you and all whom you love were already sentenced to death before the atomic bomb was invented: and quite a high percentage of us were going to die in unpleasant ways. We had, indeed, one very great advantage over our ancestors – anaesthetics; but we have that still. It is perfectly ridiculous to go about whimpering and drawing long faces because the scientists have added one more chance of painful and premature death to a world which already bristled with such chances and in which death itself was not a chance at all, but a certainty.
This is the first point to be made: and the first action to be taken is to pull ourselves together. If we are all going to be destroyed by an atomic bomb, let that bomb when it comes find us doing sensible and human things – praying, working, teaching, reading, listening to music, bathing the children, playing tennis, chatting to our friends over a pint and a game of darts – not huddled together like frightened sheep and thinking about bombs. They may break our bodies (a microbe can do that) but they need not dominate our minds.ng sensible and human things – praying, working, teaching, reading, listening to music, bathing the children, playing tennis, chatting to our friends over a pint and a game of darts – not huddled together like frightened sheep and thinking about bombs. They may break our bodies (a microbe can do that) but they need not dominate our minds.
He then goes on to compare the Christian view versus the naturalist view, and then concludes the essay this way:
It is part of our spiritual law never to put survival first: not even the survival of our species. We must resolutely train ourselves to feel that the survival of Man on this Earth, much more of our own nation or culture or class, is not worth having unless it can be had by honourable and merciful means.
The sacrifice is not so great as it seems. Nothing is more likely to destroy a species or a nation than a determination to survive at all costs. Those who care for something else more than civilization are the only people by whom civilization is at all likely to be preserved. Those who want Heaven most have served Earth best. Those who love Man less than God do most for Man.
And since there is nothing more uplifting to the spirits than a chubby baby.... I give you these:
Just doing my part in helping the morale. (you're welcome.)
