Total confirmed cases in US: 29,495,907
365 days ago when I wrote my first plague diary there were 3,774 confirmed cases in the US. Since then, the covid-19 pandemic cut a rough path through some unmapped territory in the human psyche. At first, it was terrifying but novel, then it became sorrowful and several new kinds of terrifying. After a year full of holes where people and events should have been, after watching our country sink in a cesspool of disease, conspiracy theories, and lies, a dim light is now perceptible at a great distance. Many things we lost are starting to come back while many others never will. It has been an informative, and formative, year. What the survivors carry with them when the pandemic ends will become part of their character.
Like war, or cancer, covid-19 brought death to the human family. We were distracted by other concerns while it crept into our homes to hurt or kill us. As often happens with a death in the family, we turned on each other, looking for someone to blame for our grief. As also happens, we mostly blamed the people we already disliked.
What we have become is unsustainable. Some economic engines need to be restarted while others need to be shut down for good. A new balance will emerge because that is the way nature works. We will be better in the long run for the knowledge we gained from this experience, especially after we remember how to communicate with each other.
Words & Music by Mike Power 