BC
Everyone knows what BC stands for in a date…like 200BC. Most everyone knows it stands for Before Christ. Now a bit of trivia. Without Googling it, what does AD stand for in a date? Go ahead and guess. I will answer it at the end of this blog, so don’t cheat. LOL.
Some day we are going to look back at 2020BC. How can that be? Because BC in this instance refers to Before Covid. People ten years from now will look back and remember when life was normal. Wow, how things have changed, and not for the better.
Think about the things that have all happened to us in a matter of months:
- Masks and social distancing are now mandatory for the foreseeable future, and maybe the rest of our lives according to some “experts.”
- Online learning has become part of our education toolbox and for some people will be the sole path forward for learning.
- Businesses which previously were thriving in our economy are now closed or severely restricted in how they operate. Some will never recuperate from their losses.
- Churches are for the most part still closed and restricted to online broadcasts. Somehow they were not deemed essential businesses.
- Funeral homes are backed up and have restrictions about how they operate.
I can hardly wait for Halloween. I am going to go Trick or Treating with NO MASK. Pretty scary, huh? LOL. Seriously, these are bizarre days to say the least. I can’t imagine what young kids must think that just a few months ago were going to school, going to church, playing with their friends, and just enjoying life. They have to be wondering what in the world is going on here?
I know people talk about the “new normal” as something we have to accept, but I have a problem with that. All of this is not normal. What we had BC was normal. Yes, we had problems. We had war, racial strife (which is still going on), social issues, poverty, etc…but we had the freedom to go to school, go to church, go to funerals, go to visit our loved ones in the hospital, get on a plane and travel the world without feeling paranoid, operate our businesses freely, go to sporting events, and much more.
Somehow we need (as a country and as a world) to figure out how to deal with something like Covid. We can’t live our lives in constant fear, worrying about “what if?” I do believe in using common sense. I wash my hands. I stay home and isolate myself when I am sick. I cover my mouth when I cough or sneeze, and wash my hands afterwards. I have done all of that for many years. Perhaps it is how I was raised, but my 20 years in healthcare didn’t hurt my thoughts about germ control either. Imagine if everyone would do those things consistently.
I know that everyone is praying for a vaccine to fix this issue, but what do we do with the NEXT pandemic? What if the vaccine doesn’t work? I am just saying, there are no vaccines made for future diseases that don’t even exist yet. I don’t have the answers…just pointing out the obvious problems we face in this country and around the world. Countries that have less sanitary conditions are obviously more at risk than the U.S. There are a lot of questions we have to face and problems we have to prepare for. I pray that our President, our Congress, our Governors and Mayors all work together to help us find a way through the wilderness we are now lost in and quit the political bickering. Someday we will look back at early 2020 and remember what life used to look like.
O.K. For those of you that have been chomping at the bit to have the answer to the trivia question, AD is Latin for Anno Domini, and means “in the year of the Lord” referring to the birth of Christ. Bet you didn’t know that! Anyway, stay safe, and pray for our world to find a way to return to normality. Shalom!
Daniel Skognes