“Through it all the angry, blustering tweets issued from the White House like panicked bats fleeing flames in the smokestack.”
- Peggy Noonan - Wall Street Journal
It’s been a pretty bad year so far. You would be forgiven if you felt this was the “worst year ever”. I have seen stories and memes to that effect over the past several weeks.
I was downtown on Mass Avenue a few days ago. I was there to meet some friends regarding a new outdoor project I am working on. It was one of those rare Indiana days when the weather at dusk was sublime. Mass Avenue has been closed to traffic for awhile now and restaurants have spilled out on the street setting up outdoor tables for patrons. People were everywhere enjoying the convivial atmosphere. I walked with my friends down the middle of the street with my homemade mask on just enjoying the sight of people gathering and enjoying life. After weeks of social isolation, it was intoxicating.
My friends and I soon found a table and did the best we could with our masks and social distancing. However, very soon we were lost in conversation and masks began to slip as we had drinks and some food. Your mind begins to think, “these are my friends, they will not give me Covid.”
This notion is absurd of course. My friends may be good people, but they cannot control a virus. Anyone at anytime can become a vector for infection. The virus cares little for my desires, feelings, or ‘rights’. It is a biological agent looking for a host. We are food for a tiny predator.
So you live in a state of constant unease, like the humming of a large fly in a room that you cannot kill or let out of the window. It’s hard to relax when you venture out.
On July 1st we will enter our sixth month of the pandemic. Over 122,000 Americans are dead.
As a result of the pandemic the economy has collapsed and teetering towards a Depression. Millions remain out of work. Although we currently have no food problems, there are curious shortages now in stores.
Currently the news about the pandemic is not good. Listening to the press I continue to hear dire warnings of the real danger of this infection. These warnings are not coming from fringe sites or Fox news. Reliable sources of information such as NPR, PBS, and the New York Times are sounding the alarm.
It’s a little like what France must have been like during World War 1. Unlike World War 2, the first world war did not cause widespread destruction of the country. The front was a 100 mile wide charnel house on the Northern border but beyond that the world was relatively normal. People went about their lives waiting to hear who won.
As if all of this was not enough, people are in the streets crying out for racial justice. For the first time in my memory white people are listening to the call and taking seriously the anguished cries of African Americans who have suffered so long in a corrupt system. Like a deep scar over a festering sore we are looking at our past with new eyes. It is difficult to look at the wound. We are all guilty and we need to come to terms with our past.
In the middle of all of this historic crisis we have a professional, non equity, rodeo clown as a president. He is a man so completely unprepared for the job that it is astonishing he receives any votes at all.
His latest? He has chosen now to ask the Supreme Court to strike down the ACA (Obama care). If he is successful, over 30 million people, in the middle of a pandemic, will be without health insurance. It would be a wrecking ball crashing through an already fragile and corrupt health care system.
So you would be forgiven if you think this is the worst year in history.
However, you would be wrong.
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The worst year in history started on a Tuesday in the year 536 AD (CE).
At that time the Roman Empire had long since faded from the height of its glory. Rome had split in two with the eastern half going to what is today modern-day Istanbul. This remnant of the Roman Empire came to be known as the Byzantine Empire.
Procopius, a Byzantine historian wrote that a “Fog” had settled over the land in 536. This was confirmed by other writers of the day. The sun was constantly obscured in the sky by thick yellow grey clouds.
He wrote, “The sun gave forth light without brightness.” It lasted the entire year.
Another historian described the sun as shining for only around 4 hours a day, but its light was only a feeble shadow.
The lack of sunlight destroyed agricultural crops and wide spread famine swept across the whole world like a scythe. Hundreds of millions died horribly.
Why did this happen?
Recent research showed in Iceland there was an enormous volcanic eruption that essentially turned the world into Mordor. The titanic blast blew so much ash and dust in the sky that it covered most of the world. The average temperature fell around 35 degrees Fahrenheit. This effect on the Earths climate would last for decades affecting crops all over the world.
As if this apocalyptic event was not enough, there were at least two plagues that ravaged the empire. Nobody was immune to the disease. It affected rich and poor alike.
Constantinople (Istanbul) was the largest city in the known world. Thousands were dying daily from the plague. There was no provision for burial and the city reeked with the smell of dead corpses. Bodies were simply thrown into the large waterway that divides the city in huge numbers.
Emperor Justinian, the ruler at the time, ordered the bodies moved out of the city. All this accomplished was exposing even more people to the disease further spreading the epidemic. Historian estimate in 536 AD some 50 million people died from the plague alone. It would later be known as the Justinian Plague.
In China, thousands of miles from Iceland, writers record that a thick yellow ash that “You could scoop up” would fall from the sky. It would snow in Summer. Famine followed and 70-80% of the population died.
More volcanoes in El Salvador and North America also erupted that year creating what came to be known as the “Late Antique Ice Age”. It lasted a decade. Untold millions died.
The year 536 likely sealed the fate of the Roman Empire. In addition to all of the above, there were numerous uprisings and wars. The Byzantine Empire was falling apart and would never again see its glory days. In 536 the Empire lost 35-55% of it’s population.
In Peru, the Moche civilization, a pre Incan people, would be completely destroyed by the events of 536 AD as well. That is how far the reach of the cataclysmic event reached.
Eventually the Earth healed itself. The air cleared. Out of the wreckage of the Byzantine Empire people crawled out and began to shape a new world. History moved on.
It was a really bad year.
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I admit to being confused and have started to doubt some of my previous convictions. In the six months since the pandemic started we have gone from sheltering in our homes to simply ignoring the risk and hoping for the best. Like many I am tired of the mask and the nagging worry about being around people. Yet I know this mental fatigue may well lead to my acquiring the virus. It is an unpleasant state of mind.
I miss seeing my children. I miss my friends and the simple pleasures of walking down a street to a crowded restaurant. I miss the communal experience of theatre and the crowds of the opening night. I miss traveling and seeing the world. I miss movie houses and Sunday mornings at church. I even miss my Mother-in-Law.
We are social creatures. It’s a strong pull.
You tell yourself that this trial will end and the path will one day we will clear the dark woods. But, there are still so many trees.
I am not giving up. I will continue to wear a mask and , like the rest of the world, wait.
I am comforted by the fact I have a home and my family, so far, is well. As I venture out carefully, I am reassured that for the most part people are kind to one another and want to help. Humans are a remarkably resilient species.
If the people that survived the hell of the year 536 can build a brave new world, then so can we .
Of this truth I have no doubt.
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