Remaining Steadfast
Isn’t it humbling, mind-blowing, and on some levels even painful to remain steadfast during a (this) pandemic? Yet, my mind is continuously thinking about and imagining our ancestors who endured the pandemics of the past. Shootz! This is easy! –says my mind.
Teaching history to middle schoolers and using art in my storytelling exposed me to some very intense paintings depicting the angel of death dispelling blood everywhere and hundreds of ghastly bodies lying all over the street. Now, are images are of exhausted healthcare workers. Still compelling, but when put next to a medieval angel of death, not so much.
Giovanni Boccaccio wrote an incredibly vivid description of the plague in The Decameron (written 1349-1353 CE). I find it fascinating his description of those who isolated, those who drank themselves away, and those that just got on with things with flowers in their hands swaggering through the streets in clothes of color.
But this paragraph will never leave my heart: “This scourge had implanted so great a terror in the hearts of men and women that brothers abandoned brothers, uncles their nephews, sisters their brothers, and in many cases wives deserted their husbands,” he writes. “But even worse, and almost incredible, was the fact that fathers and mothers refused to nurse and assist their own children, as though they did not belong to them.”
Many pandemics of the past lasted up to ten years with both second and third waves and geographical progression!
Remaining steadfast.
I am so grateful for experiencing a pandemic in 2020, a time of advanced medicine, self-care, knowledge for prevention, big houses to isolate, TELEVISION, and RADIO!
I am so grateful for my practice to remain as steadfast as possible during this time. I played many sports, which developed an ability for discipline. My journey through alternative education has introduced me to ‘steadfast,’ which has allowed me to learn how to remain firm in my place and faithful. At 8 or 9, I contracted Scabies, and DHS literally came to our house and put yellow tape across our door with a sign that said, ‘quarantine.’ Without warning, we could not leave the house for two weeks and were mandated to wash everything in our house! Talk about a shock.
Remaining steadfast.
Even with all the modern conveniences and practice, this is hard. The trust and faith that I will come out of this financially, emotionally, and physically safe is like a roller coaster ride at Cedar Point. Corona may not have hit your area or your circle of friends yet, but remain steadfast.
With a strong sense of ‘remaining steadfast,’ we will make it to the other side, and I just have to trust that if the ‘other side’ is ‘the other realm,’ then my loved ones and I will be okay. And for now, I intend to remain steadfast in my practice of safety in my ‘every day’ during to keep our kids in school, and our businesses afloat.
