DAY 19: ECQ

Somebody added an interesting attachment which I found in my Facebook wall this morning.

It was entitled THE THINGS THAT COVID-19 MADE CLEAR.

The entry was more of an enumeration of various lessons we surely gathered ever since we heard about this virus starting from a wet market in Wuhan ... until it became a pandemic, the most terrible medical emergency that has happened to the world since the Spanish Flu in 1918.

There were twenty-six entries in the list.  Some were controversial statements --- others  we have finally learned to accept through the course of this ordeal.  There were statements like:

(1) The United States is no longer the world's leading country.
or
(3) Vladimir Putin is a visionary. 

(This refers to the immediate strategies Putin implemented to lock out the possible outbreak of the Coronavirus from a country that shared borders. His precautionary measures were rendered with urgency and finality ... so much so that this has made clear another entry that goes ...)

(4) Prevention saves more lives than acting at the last moment.

(And that somehow reverberates oh-so-very-true especially when we assess how we handled this situation,where it got us and what we are doing now.)

I spent some time going through each and everyone of these points and decided that I wanted to assess the value and validity of some.  Whereas others are self-explanatory, there are a few that reckon more moments of pondering.

For instance, there is an entry that goes:

(5) Health professionals are worth more than any politicians, basketball players, actors and actresses, etc.

Never has it been proven more than true.  Whereas all of us --- whether pretending to be kings or flaunting the entitlement of our power and popularity, we are all brought down to our knees by the potency of these microbes --- these fomites that fester our bronchial system and bring us death.

No amount of good looks or cheering crowds can affirm our value in this world than the men of science, the medical professionals who have risked their own lives and personal interests to take care of our sick and make sure we are safe.

They may never make magazine covers, ride floats down busy boulevards to draw crowds.  They may not even be known by face or name ... but that nurse who tended somebody sick or held the hand of someone dying has done more for humanity than the decibels generated by popular applause.  Why?  Because you do not hear the clapping of angels nor can you see the smile of Someone Almighty who knows the nobility of that profession.

So when that Senator poo-poohs the role of the nurse ... or any medical worker in this country ... just please remind her of March 2020 and ask her where she was when these belittled men and women were spending sleepless hours tending the needy in overcrowded hospitals.  Ask anyone who looks down on these people whether they were terrified to even go out of their houses while these doctors and nurses were out there in the front lines.  Enough said.

This also leads to two other important points mentioned in the article.

(7) We are not mistaken when we ask for more hospitals and less wars.
and
(10) Death does not distinguish race, color and social status.

In the great pandemic of 2020, the playing field was leveled.  

Regardless of the number of digits your bank account totals ... or what claim to fame you may have ... or from what part of the planet you are from --- the Grim Reaper does his job.

We did not learn more than a century ago when the Spanish flu harvested more lives than the sum total of all the wars declared by men against each other in the name of nation or faith.

We never took the saying Health is wealth unless the risk to perish becomes so strong and evident because people around us, people we know are dying by the day.

Only then do we realize that whether he or she is from some posh village with tall gates and 24/7 security ... or even royalty from some European country ... or some Everyman who lives by the day and whose name will never reach the papers nor ever recalled --- all are pawns, all are potential casualties.

And just because we opted to give more premium to a mall ... or a multi-storey parking lot ... rather than to invest time and money for medical services, research and hospitals.

We only realize our folly and stupidity when we are making a headcount of casualties.

Oh, another entry that really got me was:

(11) Oil is worthless in a society without consumption.

That really hit the nail right on the head.

Suddenly the price of diesel and premium gasoline plummeted because nobody was going around driving or flying.  In a world that has gone completely still, oil becomes ... well, dispensable.  After nearly three weeks of being locked up in the house, the car only goes to the grocery and the drugstore and back.

When I see videos of the streets outside, especially the early recordings of EDSA that first Sunday after the lockdown, I realized just how drastic and dramatic this self-isolation has become. And this is worldwide.  

How can the world ever be the same after this?  After realizing that this is possible, how can we ever go back and be the same people as we were a month ago?   

This also leads to another important point that made me shake my head and clench my fists.

(14) Now we know how animals feel in zoos.

I need not go into a detailed elaboration of this.

How much of our freedom have we taken for granted?  I have always run that in my mind ever since the quarantine started.

Why has it become such a big production number to put on your mask, wear your face shield, wear a baseball cap, put on goggles, wear disposable gloves ... just to go to an ATM machine about five minutes away from my house?

So that is why I prefer to stay within the periphery of my home. 

After three weeks, I have memorized every nook and cranny of the house. I never spent more than five minutes in my garden before ... and now most of my mornings I loll around the area, do my exercise, check on the plants and even discover that my housekeeper's cat is the sweetest feline every created (although I am a dog person).

I realize that I have found another definition of happiness in my confined space because I have no other choice but to do so.

And I am never ever going to take my freedom for granted again.  Ever.

( TO BE CONTINUED.  There are a couple more points that I would love to talk about ... but let us leave that for tomorrow.)