OUR FUTURE IS LITERALLY UP IN THE AIR

Two things can be said about the coronavirus pandemic that we are currently enduring: 1) It certainly weeds out the world's population of its most vulnerable (139,000 deaths thus far, 23 percent over the age of 70); and 2) it makes us vividly aware of the importance of germ protection, short of turning us all into a bunch of Howie Mandel germaphobics.

I am sure that I am like a number of readers who can't help but wonder what life will be like when this period of self-isolation and hygeine consciousness is over. Will we lapse back to our previous ways of conducting our personal lives or will we have learned something from our experience and conduct ourselves accordingly? 

Let's face it, the measures we are taking to save ourselves from a global pandemic are already changing us in fundamental, possibly irreparable ways. By instituting lockdowns and deploying a variety of emergency powers across the country, we are destroying our economy, our social fabric, and our political system. We may well never be the same. Whether we change for both the better and the worse, as opposed to the solely catastrophic, will depend on how mindful we remain of the damage we are doing as we attempt to save ourselves from the pandemic.

The economy has already taken the biggest sudden hit in memory. Hundreds of thousands of people have lost their jobs, and many more will become unemployed in the coming weeks. Inequalities in wealth, opportunity, and access to health care have become even more glaring than they were just a couple of weeks ago.

The social fabric is being torn in unprecedented ways, owing to school closings, a widespread shift to working from home, social distancing and sheltering now in place. Whereas we used to share dozens of experiences a day with friends, acquaintances, and strangers -- from taking public transit to working in an office, standing in line at lunch, going to a concert, eating at a restaurant, chatting to a taxi driver, sitting beside fellow churchgoers -- many of us have been reduced to sharing only isolation and the fear of chance encounters, if either of those can be said to be shared.

In the future will we think twice about shaking hands, hugging and other close encounters of daily human existence? Will we go around continuing to sterilize everything we touch, virtually paranoid? Will avoidance in general be the order of our days?

I truly wish that I had answers to the questions I have posed...but I don't. I can only state facts of the matter. 

We are living in an uncertain time. It is as if we have lost control of our very existence and are at the mercy of authoritarianism. How dangerous can that be?

Think about it friends.

Only God can help us now!...And I'm not sure of what He has in mind.