By the time I post this, the number of deaths from the pandemic will be at 500,000, half a million dead. Can you grasp such a number? Can you?
Back in the early 1980's, I remember listening to a live broadcast of the Simon and Garfunkel reunion concert in Central Park, NYC. The news came out that there were half a million people at the concert, a mind bending amount that not even Simon or Garfunkel knew until they were back at their separate apartments after the show and were watching the news. They could not comprehend that number, and they were in the middle of it. Well, I don;t think that we cna comprehend it for the same reason.
In a short time, it will be a year since the lock down. I don;t think there is a person out there who does not know of someone who has not gotten the virus, been hospitalized by it, or died from it. But, when there is no way of stopping the numbers from rising, perspective becomes impossible. One only fully begins to understand the destruction of war once armistice has been called. The amount of winning or loss only comes from one leaves the gambling table. We are in the middle of this and it is far from ending.
Let me clarify that last statement. I know of people who have gamed the system and gotten the vaccine even though they do not fit the requirements to get it. Yes, they lied and got the vaccine. It seems easy enough if you are willing to drive over an hour to get it. While I am more than willing to drive that far, I just can't do such a thing because of, well, karma. Yes, there are debates that it does not matter because if it is not used, the vaccine will be disposed of at the end of the day. Fair enough to the lucky few who wind up in the right place at the right time and get it. But, it just feels very smarmy to lie and get it early.
There is a long road till this is over in full. The news is saying that, by the present calculations, by the end of the Summer, most people will have gotten the vaccine. But, life going back to anything close to normal will not happen by the end of the year. Also note, Winter will begin at the end of December, so vaccines will most likely be needed again for the new year. I have been isolated so long that I cannot comprehend the Summer, much less another Winter. The days just flow onward the same as the previous. Anything that you may want to do today, you can just put off till tomorrow.
But let's follow the money for the real plan. As I was driving home from the post office, I heard that the behemoth concert promoter, Clear Channel, has booked many outdoor shows in NYC for the Summer. I believe that I have heard that the NYC Opera will be opening in the Autumn. There are millions and millions of dollars at stake and these organizations are desperate to get back to making money, so their best guess seems to be something of a safe bet. The numbers of deaths and infections IS going down, but the new variants of the virus may cause another spike. Vaccine distribution, while better, is still a mess.
So, if you get a chance, go online and search for Simon and Garfunkel's Concert in Central Park. The music is great and the stage setting is very cool. But, when they do a crowd shot or when you hear the crowd go bonkers for one of the songs, try to imagine a silence and mass death of that size. I am willing to bet you can't. No on can, as Camus said in "The Plague". As humans, we cannot comprehend the death of a single person in our lives that we care about.
Half a million deaths and counting and we cannot even grasp the number 1.
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