COVID IN THE CITY

 

The past few weeks have been so grueling. FB posts and messages are flooded with "Condolences", "Rest in Peace", "Get Well Soonest", "Praying for Your Fast Healing and Recovery, and many others that seem to blow one's sanity in the midst of rising Covid cases in the city.

It is just easy to say "Be Strong!"  But once the family faces the stark reality of the infection, things seem to fall out of place. Reality bites when one undergoes quarantine or voluntary isolation because of a close contact with an infected person. Mind you, it sends shivers to the bones and racing heart beat. The mind is bombarded with a lot of “what ifs?”.  The agony of waiting and monitoring bodily changes for ten days is enough to make you paranoid. The fear and anxiety escalate even more when a family member is brought to the hospital with no assurance that he/she can go back home or is brought to a "new home". Sadder than sad is when that family member is brought back home in ashes or is immediately buried, thus, making family members unable to mourn for their beloved dead.

We storm heaven with prayers; we stuff ourselves with food and vitamins to build an invulnerable fortress of immunity in our bodies; we forcibly immerse ourselves with stress-relief mechanisms to perhaps momentarily shun from the bleak reality of the pandemic.

We are facing a war - a war against the Covid virus, our unseen enemy. We are also at a war with ourselves because if we succumb to fear and depression, we will more likely be defeated. For others, it is also a test of faith. Perhaps, one may ask, 'where is God in the midst of this pandemic?' For us, it is a physical, emotional, psychological and spiritual battle. Now is the time for us to release that superpower in us to rise above negativities and remain victorious in this battle.

I am prone to believe that what is happening now is a "survival of the fittest", a simple understanding of Charles Darwin's Natural Theory of Evolution by Natural Selection and Thomas Malthus' idea of a natural check on population.

We are a race of humanity whose intelligence and capabilities have surmounted to the scales, such that, we are put to a difficult test - a true test of humanity. Man is not easily defeated; he will always strive to rise above adversities. In his armor of defense is the "invisible hand" of God ready to salvage him from the pangs of death and the threats to human existence.  We have to remember also that in every war, there are casualties.  In this war we are now facing, let’s not make ourselves pawns to the enemy. 

 

We worry about the economy because of the continued MECQ or ECQ, but if we continue to be stubborn, unmindful and uncooperative we will be losing our battle. By doing so, we give the virus the chance to mutate further and allowing the pandemic to prowl longer in our society.

 

Stay Home! Observe Health Protocols.  Pray!