Musings of a Social Distancer

When looking at the world today it's hard not to marvel at the changes that have taken place over the last few weeks. The pope is preaching to empty public squares, no one is gathering in church buildings anywhere, none of the world's sports teams are playing, Tom Brady is no longer a New England Patriot (I'm a die hard Pats fan with or without him), all the theaters, restaurants, concert halls and other public venues are closed, the economy is at a crawl and China is not as big a polluter as it once was. All this and more in...what? A month?

Gotta say, though, that Canadian leaders at all levels of government have been stellar in rising to the occasion of the onset of the COVID-19 outbreak. I’m no fan of Canada's Liberal minority government but they’ve done well in handling this health crisis. This, I think, is true of most of the world's governments. Glad that partisan sniping has been replaced by a spirit of cooperation, if only temporarily. The heroes are the medical people and other front-liners who place themselves in harm’s way for the common good. And the ingenuity! I saw a report last night from Italy where ventilators are being made from SCUBA masks. Necessity truly is the mother of invention. 

Paradoxes intrigue me. It’s funny how mass communication in the form of social media separates us all into silos while enforced distancing actually brings us all closer together. This crisis is showing us who we are. The selfishness shown by some is in all of us. All of us are infected with the "selfish germ" in some way even though it may not yet be in full-flower. May we all emerge from this with an adjusted sense of priority, a renewed sense of purpose and a greater appreciation of each other and what we have been given. And, most important, may we incline ourselves to looking up to the great God who made us knowing that our beings are fragile and entirely contingent on Him. Praying for the recovery of the sick and protection for everyone else. Take care and wash up.