I’ve been thinking about something lately, and yesterday on the 4th of July, I got thinking about it even more. Listening to patriotic songs that mention previous wars, battles, hard times, and glory… plus watching the old war planes do flyovers at the nation’s Capitol celebration, it made me think about this world’s complicated history and realize something.
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| Watching the U.S. Capitol’s firework display on TV |
Right now, the whole world is up in arms over this coronavirus pandemic. Everything is disrupted, our lives are uprooted and upended. Normal life as we knew it has seemingly vanished overnight and people are struggling, big time.
But hasn’t it always been this way, over the course of history? Is this really so surprising?
What I mean is this: Since I was born in the early ‘80’s, there have been worldwide problems, but fortunately, the big world wars and the Vietnam War had ended fairly recently before my birth. But looking back over time, over history, what generation has managed to escape in a lifetime completely unscathed of some major worldwide problem or another??
Think about people living during the Great Depression or World War II, or let’s go back to the Civil War, or the American Revolution. Heck, let’s go way back to the time of the Roman Empire and the Punic War! Not to even mention natural disasters, other illnesses prior to vaccines, hard lives of immigrants and settlers around the world…. Historically speaking, life on this Earth has been pretty difficult for the human race.
I think my generation at least has been really quite “lucky” to not have too many catastrophes happen so far in our lifetime that have REALLY impacted our daily life in the way this pandemic has. Yes, there have been problems in the last 35-40 years, and big ones at that! We’ve still had wars, 9/11, terrorism threats, economic recessions, many social problems and injustices, and on and on.
But I still would argue that for the majority of us (at least in most first world countries), our daily lives have still been generally unaffected for the most part. Most previous “problems” we’ve faced over the past years could manage to be mostly ignored by not turning on the news. For many of us, this pandemic is the first time that our comfy little lives have actually been disrupted in a truly unavoidable way.
But I still would argue that for the majority of us (at least in most first world countries), our daily lives have still been generally unaffected for the most part. Most previous “problems” we’ve faced over the past years could manage to be mostly ignored by not turning on the news. For many of us, this pandemic is the first time that our comfy little lives have actually been disrupted in a truly unavoidable way.
I keep having this thought regarding the COVID pandemic, that maybe it’s finally just “our turn” in history to have to deal with a big problem, as strange as that sounds. Not that it makes it any better or that I still don’t wish it would GO AWAY, but for some reason it kind of helps me to put it in a little bit of perspective. Like, looking back in 200 years, hopefully this 2020 pandemic will just be a little blip in the history books (or history websites- will there still be books in 200 years?? I hope so).
Anyway! I still despise the pandemic and everything it has brought with it. But from a purely pragmatic standpoint, my head tells me that looking at history, the odds of my entire lifetime being completely untouched by some sort of major/ worldwide problem weren’t that good to start with.
That being said, I would be perfectly happy for the coronavirus pandemic to be a very SHORT entry in the history books, and not say, an entry the length of the Cold War or something. 😊
We’re still at my parents’ house this morning and Ethan just woke up. My time alone on the patio will probably be coming to a close momentarily, so I’ll fill you all in on more from our 4th of July fun tomorrow. 🙂 Hope you all have a great end to your weekend!!
We’re still at my parents’ house this morning and Ethan just woke up. My time alone on the patio will probably be coming to a close momentarily, so I’ll fill you all in on more from our 4th of July fun tomorrow. 🙂 Hope you all have a great end to your weekend!!
Daily Gratitude:
I am grateful for July 4th falling on a Saturday this year. In past years, Ivan and I usually have had to work on July 5th. We have stayed over at my parent’s house for the holiday but then have often had to rush home early the next morning. I’m really grateful that today we can have a slow, relaxing day before heading home later this afternoon!
GRATEFUL KAE 
I love this perspective! I think you are absolutely right. While all of this is going on and I find myself wanting to return to normal life I am reminding myself that this is historical and I want to be able to look past and see that I did the right thing even when I did not want to.
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it is so true. We've been lucky over the past few decades without too much drama, except 9/11 i think. despite how hard is to continue this state of life with huge uncertainty about its duration (which is hardest part), I am confident that we will come out stronger together as humanity because it forced us to dig deep and think what really matters to us, in daily life, and what we want in life after covid.
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Recently I read an article that tried to convince readers this is an exciting time in our history. All the unrest is basically growing pains and long overdue. I think it’s true. My son asked me recently what it was like to grow up in the 80s and 90s…so I tried to describe in the best way that I could what the good old days were like. ��
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Right! I'm sure it's always been hard to really "see" history while it is happening. 🙂
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I suppose it is "exciting". Haha. Hadn't really thought of that word, exactly, but I guess in some ways it could be! Interesting, at least, in some ways. I'm sure some of it has to do with our perspective as an adult versus a child. For example, I don't really remember too much about the Gulf War, as I was pretty young and just mostly went about my business playing and whatnot. But older adults would likely have a very different perspective or memory about that piece of history and its significance from that time.
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I think you are right and I've told myself that previous generations were asked to sacrifice far more than we are being asked to sacrifice during COVID. I mean yes, daily life is very interrupted and we've had to change our lives quite a bit. But it's nothing compared to other challenges older generations have had to face. So that gives me a sense of perspective and reminds me that I still have it very very good!
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At the beginning of the pandemic / lockdown we watched an 8 part documentary from the BBC called Wartime Farm, about the English countryside during World War II. It was a reality type show in which three historians lived on a farm for a year, trying to recreate the conditions that were in place during the war. It was a fascinating and humbling look at a historic time period that was extremely challenging for many people. We have it so easy in comparison! During the war food was rationed severely, so people had very little meat and fat. They literally had to grow food to eat, as the Germans had blockaded the British Isles, keeping imports from coming in. There were very few supplies in the shops and not much gas or heating fuel. London and the port cities were bombed and many thousands of civilians lost their lives. People had to black out their windows for the duration of the war, every night, so as not to draw enemy fire. All of this against a backdrop where the husbands and sons were off at war, and news came in every day that some of them would never return. And this went on not for a few months, but for SIX YEARS. Watching it really hit home the contrast to these past few months, as we sit in our comfortable homes with plenty of food and (mostly) safe family members. Anyway, it's on YouTube and well worth a watch if if sounds interesting to you.
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I'm sure that would be very interesting. I'll have to check it out. That is basically what I was getting at…those people had to spend 6 YEARS like that, as you said. I think we tend to think "well, too bad for them, that was a long time ago", for some reason feeling like we are invincible and things like that couldn't happen in our lifetime as well. Obviously I would rather they DIDN'T happen, but like I said in the post, historically speaking, something always seems to go down in during most generations. 😉
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