3,170,000 - cases worldwide
1,028,065 - cases in the US
224,708 - deaths worldwide
59,443 - deaths in the US
47 - days without other human contact
42 - nights outside singing God Bless America at 7 pm
That's the reality and this is what's on my mind...
Today marks one million cases of COVID–19 and almost 60,000 deaths in the US, an increase of 900,000 cases and 55,000 deaths in less than a month.
Most Americans watch the daily fluctuations up and – from time to time, albeit rarely – down as if they are a function of a ghastly viral algorithm. COVID-19 keeps moving on. It does not care that its victims were individual human beings, souls who have lived and shared life, touched others, quietly influenced generations. That memory is left for us, the living, who are destined to comfort those who have been afflicted or mourn for those who have been lost. We, who have survived and feel victimized as we remember the faces of those we love, living or forever gone.
Not everyone, however, has been personally touched – yet. That makes it easier to let the abstract nature of numbers be the perceived truth of this pandemic. We cannot do that. Let me give life to the statistics…
One million cases represents the infection of every person living in the states of:
Alaska,
Delaware,
Montana,
North Dakota,
South Dakota,
Rhode Island,
Vermont, and
the District of Columbia.
Sixty thousand deaths equals the extinction of every person living in these state capitals:
Cheyenne, Wyoming
Charleston, West Virginia
Harrisburg, Pennsylvania
Olympia, Washington
Jefferson City, Missouri
Annapolis, Maryland
Juneau, Alaska
Dover, Delaware
Helena, Montana
Carson City, Nevada
Concord, New Hampshire
Bismarck, North Dakota
Pierre, South Dakota
Montpelier, Vermont
Augusta, Maine
Frankfort, Kentucky
Understanding these numbers as people is how we connect to the heartbreak that awaits our nation’s future. Take a deep breath. We all have more strength than we realize. Find it.
No comments:
Post a Comment