MERELY reviewing my previous articles about the coronavirus pandemic has made me stressful. I must have stressed my readers even more. So now I must strive to show the way to the lighted end of the tunnel.
There has never been anything as pandemic as the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in our lifetime. And because of that we listen to preachers shouting, “It’s the end of the world. Repent! Jesus is coming again!”
That could be good news for faithful Christians who visualize Doomsday as their “entry to Paradise.”
Most of us, I guess, would react as expected, “Oh, I am not prepared that.” We would rather be assured this is not the end of us yet. But with almost 750,000 earthlings (as of yesterday) afflicted by the mysterious disease, is mankind really doomed?
Oh no, not yet! As of yesterday, only around 34,000 of them have died. In a world population of eight billion (8,000,000,000) today, the odds are still in life’s favor.
This is not really good news, however, because even prominent people like politicians, physicians and movie stars have joined the minority – the “positive” COVID victims.
But it does our psyche good to know that, since we have survived worse pandemics in the days of yore, why not in our enlightened, scientific era?
The present generation remembers the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) of2003, which also originated in China (specifically Guandong province) and spread to 25 other countries. It killed 774 out of 8,098 contaminated victims.
Thanks to Google, I am privileged to travel back in time to the year 1918. Now I know that the Spanish Flu of 1918 killed a bigger number – 50 million people – worldwide, including Filipinos, mostly during the 16-week period between September and December 1918.
We have personally experienced natural disasters like typhoon “Yolanda,” which killed thousands of residents and leveled big and small houses in Leyte and Samar, and in lesser proportion in Iloilo, Aklan, Capiz and Antique on November 8, 2013.
I still quake whenever I replay in my mind my experience with typhoon “Frank” in June 2008. I survived the flood, but was not good enough to save my camera, precious books and an old typewriter from the raging water current.
Today, I remember what some people were saying at that time: “This is our karma for knowingly polluting the environment.”
The aftermath of our COVID-19 experience today could be worse in terms of regaining what we have lost. But surviving the ordeal could be worth the price we have to pay – kicking off from square one all over again.
We have heard our neighbors sighing, “Kon indi kita mapatay sa COVID, basi mapatay kita sa gutom.”
True, the threat of hunger could worse than the threat of COVID-19. If we survive this virus by staying at home in the long run, even farmers might have to contend with non-existent food.
We have also heard news about the more fortunate sharing their good fortune, knowing that their own survival hinges on those of others.
And if I must share what I can afford, it’s inspirational quotations like “When the going gets tough, the tough get going.”
I share Bible stories on faith, like that one about Jesus Christ walking on the rough sea before the eyes of Peter, who initially believed he could do it, too. Peter walked a few steps but sank when he began doubting.
To quote the late American inspirational book author Napoleon Hill, “What the human mind can conceive, the human mind can achieve.” (hvego31@gmail.com/PN)
