Love, hope and strength in the time of COVID-19

By Irwin See

Once in a while, I come across a newspaper article that is written in such a beautiful way that the words seem to dance off the page. Even better, the themes that they discuss are also relevant content for General Paper, so I eagerly cut out the article (yes, I’m still old-school ) to be used in my lessons. And one such article that I read recently is by Rohit Brijnath who is one of my favourite editors. Let me share some of the points he explored in his article about how we’re moping and worrying in this current pandemic, and yet we’ve also reached for one another, for faith, for routine - and for hope.

On the uncertainty of knowing how long a situation lasts

He likens our first 100 days of the pandemic to the challenge of long-distance swimmers who swim in icy oceans and turbulent seas, underscoring the elasticity of time. One swimmer said this: ''The thing about long-distance swimming is how the goalposts can shift. You think you're going to do a 10-hour swim and then you get to the coast of France and suddenly a current picks you up and it's going to be a 15-hour swim. You think it's going to be 15 hours and suddenly it's 20 hours.”

Similarly, a hundred days is just a marker of how far we've come, a signpost, but it's not a promise of anything. We don't know if this is halfway to normality, or far away, because this virus doesn't just sicken and kill, it teases and shifts our goalposts. Like swimmers in unknown waters, we must endure.

On human pride & humility

We're caught in the midst of a stranded planet with its empty streets which resemble abandoned film sets. Faith is being tested and human conceit is being punctured. For all our bragging about forecasts and algorithms, this virus has humbled us. We can't read the future, but we wish to exit the present. We're a species so used to being in control and now we are not, and it's strange and scary. We wish for things we never did before, like the simple pleasure of the noisy, lively street.

More at https://www.domainofexperts.com/2020/05/love-hope-and-strength-in-time-of-covid.html
 

AnthM

New Member
wow, that's a very beautiful article! I love how he compared this virus to a long-distance swimming.. and about the thing that we don't know at all if we are only at the beginning of this all or it soon will come to an end.. Unfortunately, it is so.. The situation is definitely not in our hands. But there's a thing we can help with.. Trying to stop the spread. As for me, whenever I know I have to meet some people I order myself this test https://www.confirmbiosciences.com/covid19-sars-antigen-rapid-swab-tests/ so I can be sure I won't spread it further.
 
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