THE Week

I have not experienced a week like this, ever. In a very short period of time, everything was turned upside down. School had to close its doors so the future remains uncertain. Awash in all this uncertainty, are real people who are impacted more by COVID-19 in a way so much more intensely than I could imagine.

My dad is now isolated in a care home, unable to have outside visitors until this blows over six months or so from now. It is probable that I will not be able to see him again on this earth. He is going to go through his end days lonely and frightened while the rest of the world competes for a roll of toilet paper.

As it has been said before, this crisis may not define us but it most certainly will reveal us.

“Suppose two astronauts go to the moon.  When they arrive, they have an accident and find out that they have only enough oxygen for two days.  There is no hope of someone coming from Earth in time to rescue them.  They have only two days to live.  If you asked them at that moment, ‘What is your deepest wish?’ they would answer, ‘To be back home walking on the beautiful planet Earth.’  That would be enough for them; they would not want anything else.  They would not want to be the head of a large corporation, a big celebrity or president of the United States.  They would not want anything except to be back on Earth—to be walking on Earth, enjoying every step, listening to the sounds of nature and holding the hand of their beloved while contemplating the moon.” - Thich Nhat Hanh (b.1926)