No one writing anywhere on the web can fail to say a dozen or so words about where we find ourselves, in the midst of a worldwide pandemic. This is to note it — and note that, when I can get my small head around it, I’ll want to say more, if only to myself — and to whatever lonely soul chances upon this lonely blog.
I’ll say this — in our lifetime, we have never seen such a thing. The idea that, for instance, some fellow in some obscure filthy little Wuhan street market, in the process of butchering a bat for sale as food might have wiped his face with a bloody hand and sent the entire earth — China, France, Italy, Israel, the UK, the USA, and on and on — into quarantine and panic and death, this is truly beyond comprehension.
You can be certain that the worldwide pandemic of 2020 will be the backdrop of any number of novels and dramas hereafter. But we’ll be looking for the non-fiction book that tells us exactly HOW this happened. Bats? Poor protocal at that Wuhan laboratory.? And while the U.S. administration has become vulnerable to criticism for its failure to react quickly enough to provide tests, we should ask, how long the the insidious Chinese regime keep under wraps just how desperately fast this thing was spreading in their nation?
The spiritual implications of all this are before us — even as churches are ordered closed to the faithful due to that ubiquitous phrase — out of an abundance of caution.
I confess, I don’t understand the hoarding of toilet paper. Now, there’s the white flag of surrender.
Imagine — and I hate to do so — if terrorists ever mastered a means of unleashing such a thing on the infidel.
We cannot calculate the impact this will have on the economies of affected nations, including our own. And — may this be an opportunity for us to learn how to plan for and prevent such a thing from happening again — as it goes on happening for weeks, maybe months.
19 Cent Notebook 