He now felt glad at having suffered sorrow and trouble, because it enabled him to enjoy so much better all the pleasure and happiness around him.
— Hans Christian Andersen
Hospitals are swamped. Morgues are filled. Unemployment offices can't keep up with first-time applications.
What possible good can come from Covid-19?
I continue to hear people say we were blindsided, that the pandemic is a black swan.
The man who coined the term, financier Nassim Nicholas Taleb, disputes that claim. He thinks the pandemic was foreseeable and—like Bill Gates—predicted it.
The deaths (93 thousand) and job losses (36 million) are indeed catastrophic.
But many of us are witnessing aspects of the lockdown that are less so:
- The air and rivers are refreshing themselves
- Animals are reasserting themselves
- Parents are discovering they have children
- Children are discovering they have parents
- Neighbors are discovering they are neighbors
- People are learning there's value in art, architecture and books
- Adults are rediscovering bikes
- Family members are sleeping regularly and eating locally grown food
- Citizens are realizing government isn't their enemy; and
- Republicans are beginning to realize the president is
The "new normal" could look prettier than we ever imagined.
