How to Live with the Plague
No one asked my opinion of coronavirus, and I am under no delusions that it matters. I don’t like writing about current events, but in this case, there are transcendent themes I want to keep in mind as many around me are losing theirs.
A basic review of the evidence shows that COVID-19 isn’t as deadly as many are making it out to be. But even if it was, it would be just another entry in a long list of dangers that could kill us. One day, something will. I believe the fear of coronavirus is a greater danger than the virus itself, and is already threatening to unleash mass hysteria.
Disney World, Broadway, and concert tours have all been closed due to the virus. Taking precautions is important, but in times of fear and uncertainty, we need magic and art more than ever. Many churches and libraries have also closed their doors, which, if possible, is even more horrifying. We can not afford to face death and the fear of death cloistered from the very things that remind us why we live.
During the four year siege of Sarajevo in the mid-nineties, the city’s population was reduced to abject poverty without access to public transportation, water, gas, or electricity. In the middle of the conflict, a beauty pageant was held and seventeen year old Inela Nogić was crowned Miss Besieged Sarajevo. The pageant took place in a basement to avoid sniper attacks, but it took place just the same. It’s an incredible glimpse of humanity in the most trying and dangerous of circumstances.
Beauty, freedom, art, the proclamation of the Gospel, love – these are things that can never stop, no matter the danger. In fact, it is in times of danger that they take on their greatest significance.
As individuals, of course everyone should take steps to minimize the spread of the virus. But we can take precautions without compromising our humanity. We can avoid handshakes while remaining friendly. We can keep our distance while engaging in community. We can support local arts, nonprofits, independent bookstores, and small businesses when they might otherwise have to close their doors forever. The most important thing we can do is look out for others. Instead of hoarding things for ourselves, make sure those around us are taken care of – especially single parents, the elderly, and those less privileged than ourselves.
In times of fear, a person’s true colors are revealed. Many seek their own interest and justify hurting, ignoring, or running over others in their mad haste to survive. When the Titanic sank, some people in the frigid water capsized lifeboats in their attempt to climb in. Others gave up their lifejackets and their place in the boats. As the virus of fear spreads, we have the opportunity to serve others instead of ourselves, and look out for the interest of our fellow man more than our own survival.
I will let the far more eloquent C. S. Lewis have the last word:
“How are we to live in an atomic age? Why as you would have lived in the sixteenth century when the plague visited London almost every year, or as you would have lived in a Viking age when raiders from Scandinavia might land and cut your throat any night; or indeed, as you are already living in an age of cancer. In other words, do not let us begin by exaggerating the novelty of our situation. Believe me, you and all whom you love were already sentenced to death before the atomic bomb was invented. And quite a high percentage of us were going to die in unpleasant ways. It is perfectly ridiculous to go about whimpering and drawing long faces because the scientists have added one more chance of painful and premature death to a world which already bristled with such chances and in which death itself was not a chance at all, but a certainty.”
J.
March 16, 2020