Date: April 10/2020
Place: Piedmont CA
In the Shadow of the Corona - Reflections # 3
Prior to the days of the Corona, our small, sleepy Piedmont neighborhood, exhibited low patterns of side-walking traffic, excluding of some school children, or the accidental toddling seniors, and dog-walkers, tugged by their pets, both airing out their loved ones, at the early morning and dusk hours.
Suddenly, as the enforcement practices on social- distancing progressed all this pastorela changed one day.
First, the drowsy town metamorphosed into a bustley spasmodic promenade, shadowed by its all age-range inhabitants.
We finally got to encounter the many neighbors and by-passers, coming together in droves, outside of their beautiful large homes. We were familiar with the architectlay beautiful houses, from our past frequent walks, but now we also finally encountered the home-owners themselves.
The very young to the middle and senior age, all were ejected out, crowding the street's sidewalks, at all hours of the day, in various familial clusters.
Folks were biking, leisurely strolling, speed-walking or jogging. Not only that all were breezing fresh air, and inhaling specks of freedom, they mainly were refueling on starved social and emotional connectedness, while at the same time maintaining appropriate physical intervals from each other, as the preventative measures prescribed.
Later, when the stricter in-home stay instructions were enforced, and public parks’ spaces got sealed off reach, the lively scenes of crowded jolly clusters, diminished into random faced covered walking couplings, brushing off somberly, through the once again, abandoned streets.
The virus's devilish swamp, certainly has drowned the global community, in unexpected murky fluid circumstances.
Who could have ever imagined, that at the peak of the modern digital age, when society is over-equipped with closeness enhancing technological devices, and ever than before in man-kind history, is hyper- connected on-line, via across the globe endless social networks, humans at large, are actually thrown apart, grounded confined and restricted in one place, yet isolated and compelled to practice "social distancing”.
The "Tower of Bable" wisdom
With a stretch of biblical imagination, the nightmare drama, which is induced, this time around, by a microscopic stealthy virus, may be perceived as a modern reincarnation of the 4000 years old Biblical story of the ”Babel Tower"
That legend on the visible looming tower wisely illuminates and forewarn mankind, of social experimentation’s perils
In the original ancient story, humanity got artificially united around erecting the tallest unifying Tower.
This idea is transmitted by the “One global language” for all.
The Tower was made of of mortar brick - the newest most technologically innovative cementing material, of the time.
The strong hierarchical structure - a Tower of Power, meant to keep the clusters of varied nations, glued tightly together, under one controlled flattened social identity.
Yet, this alleged unified societal structure, which was supposed to preserve collective homogeneous identity, the story tells us, was crumbled down and its builders dispersed into many nations. Each got to speak its own unique language, and each gaining its own societal special identity.
As much as global cooperation is novel and has its merits, the Tower of Babel story warn us, that humanity should be cautious of social experiments it conducts, and should be reminded of their limits and hidden perils.
The destroyed Tower and the decentralized structure of nations, allude to the dangers which one -mind-ness Totalitarianism bears, as well as of the menaces within all globalism, which the world now experiences with the virus accelerated free flow spread, across our globe.
Border-less European nations, have been shutting off their borders, following the Asian countries, as also did the US with the Canadian and Mexican neighboring countries.
Once open sky for all air travelers, the gates of heavens are now closed off. In the battle to mitigate the Corona virus acceleration, an iron curtain had descended across the threshold of every impacted nation.
Each society had retreated into itself imposed isolation, each had maintained social distance from its neighboring states, and each had been dealing and fighting its own war against the virus, best to its understanding and means.
The disruptions caused by the spread of the coronavirus mean supply chains will be moved closer to home rather than in foreign lands.
As the measures to mitigate the pandemic spiked and tripled, we who are not used to this type of curtailed mobility, restrictive civil liberties, and isolation, are now thrown into an existential turmoil.
Suffering of "cabin fever" destroyed economy and shuttered life, the way we knew it, requires fast adaptation and new skills set to cope with many uncertainties.
Furthermore, we are being constantly exposed to information bombardment, detailing the gravity of the crisis, the contamination’s compromising risks, and of millions who are loosing their jobs and livelihood,
lack of healing medicines, and the unknown timing of vaccines.
The struggle to save time and lives, despite the shortage in health care facilities, and personal protective and surgical supplies, or in testing kits, medical swabs, and respiratory equipment, further overwhelmed and paralyzed us.
The World Health Organization (WHO) a global entity, in which the world's nations have put their trust in, should have brought us the expected salvation, and consolation during this historical crucial moment, alas, it has badly failed and disappointed us.
There is some consolations in the assurance of cash assistance packages, in Health-care teams and FEMA national guards and many volonters now being mobilized at highest capacity to combat the pandemic, in converting ships, hotels and stadiums into floating hospitals for the sick,
Daily gained new medical understanding of covid-19, and having at least 20 vaccines now in rapid-testing development, are all most encouraging.
Each of us alone, and together will cruise along throughout the stormy water, in hope to make it across, to the safe shores of a new brave "promise land”.
The stronger “virus of hope” will prevail and reignite the promise of healthier and safer times, hopefully much sooner than later, for each country and society at large.
Hold tied... and stay healthy... there will be LIGHT!
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