Though the global response and economic shut-down feels
unprecedented for any who haven’t lived through the great depression or the
last world war, (not many of them left) it is not the world’s end nor the end
of history, and more than ever we need to know humanity’s past to regain
perspective.
I’ve always loved historical fiction. My published novel is one such,
about a traumatic episode when at one time and place a feeling that
annihilation could be immanent saturated the air. I lived that one, and lived to write about it some
years later.
My father had survived a far greater trauma. My
mother remembered the Great Depression as something from her childhood that
left her frugal for the rest of her life. We have many in our midst who lived
through historic shifts in their countries of origin, some still ongoing.
From where I stand right now, I don’t feel the current
crisis is in the magnitude of any of the above. But, of course, it’s the unknown-unknown while it’s ongoing. So
my ‘”hunch” or feeling only matter to the way I conduct myself, while G-d knows what G-d knows.
Here’s my bit of perspective: As storytellers, we who write
will have even more to mine. Stories are an integral part of humanity and
always needed. I feel a responsibility not to contribute to fear, and while
doing the right common sense things also keep notes and document this event for
the future. This doesn’t mean specifically “COVID-19 Tales,” but observations
of human behaviors, the good and noble and the less good, for future literary
exploration.
The one sure thing is that it will pass. It will be history.
Then, we’ll say (as the French do) “Quelle
histoire!” (=”What a story!”)
In the meantime, I strive to stay well and most of all to
stay generous. Same to you, everyone.
