Dealing with The Crisis

A FRONT PRAECIPITIUM

A TERGO LUPI

(A precipice in front

Wolves behind)

That’s right. No one could sum up trouble like those darned Romans. Come on, you know you are feeling a little overwhelmed.

Last night, just before I tried to go to sleep, my wife Cheryl said the thing that hovers over all of us. “Can I tell you something?” she said, “I’m afraid nothing will ever be the same again.”

I spent part of the night and most of the morning with this running through my thoughts. The answer is actually easy. No, things will never be the same. The hard part to predict is how it will be different. We know that for families who lose love ones and all of us who lose friends, there will be an empty place for the rest of our lives. We know that our sense of security has been shaken to the core and that we will be less likely to believe that every tomorrow will be like today.

In the world of drama, tragedy is defined as a fall from a great height. It is ironic that our economy that was, at least on paper, at its highest level ever suffered record losses almost over night. Social activities, sports, religious services and even dinner with friends suddenly ceased. Secure jobs vanished and left millions out of work and searching for ways to feed our families.

So, things have changed and however we put them back together, our world will be different. The virus will run its course, the economy will get better, and yes, even sports will return, but even the most hopeful recovery will leave us different: different as a world and different as a community. Every major event has done that. In my lifetime, Viet Nam, the Kennedy assassination, and 9-11 were all world changers.

Hope always comes back, life comes back and we adapt to the change. So, although things will never be the same, life will be as good and as bad as it always has been.

An English friend of mine, who was a teenager during the Blitz, once told me about a day she and a friend were bicycling through the countryside of southern England. They heard a buzzing sound and both knew it was a “Buzz Bomb”, one of the V-1 rockets that were launched by the Germans to terrorize the British into surrender. As they were taught to do, both girls jumped off their bicycles and took refuge in a ditch beside the road. The bomb exploded far enough away that they were not harmed.

“That must have been terrible.” I told her.

“Yes, I guess it was,” she said. “But I have never felt so alive.”

Be safe. Love one another. Keep a good thought.

Mike

#lifelessons #growing #plants