COVID-19 Coronavirus 2020: Is there any good to come of this?

COVID-19 Coronavirus 2020: Is there any good to come of this?
COVID-19 Coronavirus 2020: Is there any good to come of this?

I read a story on Facebook about a family heartbroken over their previously healthy son who was fighting for his life in a hospital after succumbing to the COVID-19 coronavirus. They were unable to hold his hand or talk to him in the hopes he could hear them as the rhythmic whoosh of the ventilator kept his body alive. I prayed for someone I donโ€™t know to heal. I prayed for his family to be granted some semblance of peace in knowing all that could be done was being done, albeit for them from a distance too far for comforting.

It made me realize how in our everyday world, the common factor, if you can call it comfort, is the way we tend to focus on our differences. But then whenever there is a catastrophic event or some situation that shakes us to our very core and drops us to our knees, we realize we are all the same.

The entire world, not just the city or state or country we live in – ALL of us – are united in this fight against the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic. Not one single place on planet Earth is safe from this unpredictable and wretched virus โ€“ not one. The number of confirmed cases climbs every day and is close to the 1 million mark as of this writing while nearly 50,000 have died. On the upside, close to 200,000 have recovered.

I wish that as people, we would realize and more importantly remember that we are all simply and perfectly part of the single human race. Americans are the same as Chinese. Italians are the same as Australians. Germans are the same as Bahamians.

Being the human beings that we are, our nature leads us to believe we will not be one of those people who gets sick or if we do, weโ€™ll be able to fight it off on our own. But this virus is showing us it has no rhyme or reason. It doesnโ€™t matter if youโ€™re young or old, rich or poor, brown or white. If it wants you, it will take you.

As we go forward and as in the history of other stampeding viruses, this moment of time in our world will eventually become statistics in the pages of history. Successful treatment will be followed by a vaccine. The stark memories of lives lost and the grip on the entire planet will fade.

When that happens, will we then forget that we were all united? That we all referred to Earth as our home – not just my house on Bellevue Avenue, or my city of Rome, or my country North Korea. During this time of great uncertainty, we all belonged to one family called humanity. And although we were literally in the fight for our lives, we were unified, and all the nonsense of trade wars, government politics, religious differences, and geographical borders faded away into unimportance.

As during 9/11 when the motto became โ€œWe will never forget,โ€ when we step back into the sunshine away from the darkness of this virus, โ€œLet us always remember,โ€ when it comes down to it, we are all one sharing the same home, wanting the same simply humble and happy lives.

About the author

Avatar of Linda Hohnholz, eTN editor

Linda Hohnholz, eTN editor

Linda Hohnholz has been writing and editing articles since the start of her working career. She has applied this innate passion to such places as Hawaii Pacific University, Chaminade University, the Hawaii Children's Discovery Center, and now TravelNewsGroup.

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