When I read the news that the courthouse in Yellowknife had been issued a covid advisory for three consecutive days, I thought ‘OK that is a little ironic and rather symbolic, that the horrible Covid had invaded the Halls of Justice. That is a bit of a milestone, or kilometre marker. I’m sure it was no fun for those who work there, but it does show that no place that people go is completely safe from the dreaded covid.
However, this really shouldn’t come as a surprise because no place is really safe from other contagious illnesses like the flu or common cold. So why should covid be any different. Since we now have community spread, every place should be considered vulnerable. I tend to think of things in visual terms and would really like to see animated maps, through time, of covid and its variant spread through the north, Canada and even the entire world. Such an animation might really help people understand this illness better.
Also, I am no expert on contagious diseases but when I run the visualization through my mind, with what I do know or have been told, it would seem to me that this pandemic will be with us for years to come, and I haven’t heard any of the experts, politicians or leaders talk about that yet. Maybe they should because they keep raising false hopes that don’t materialize.
Visualization can help one in all sorts of ways. Imagine a big globe where every time someone littered or threw something in the water, it showed up as a little dot. I imagine the planet would look like it was being rained on by litter and garbage. Also, every time there was a big windstorm some of those little dots would become airborne and every time there was a flood a whole bunch of dots would flow away into the rivers and eventually the ocean. In fact, some rivers would look like rivers of garbage and litter flowing into the sea.
Those little dots would start to form a recognizable layer on land and in the lakes and ocean sediment. From a geological point of view, humans are creating the litter horizon that will eventually cover the entire planet. Not sure that is anything we should be proud of, but it is the reality of it all.
On the positive side, we do seem to be learning and in time I suspect we will mend our ways. An invention can come along and change things rather quickly. When the automobile came along it replaced the horse as the main means of transportation. So, I wonder what will come along to replace the vehicles we now use. I suspect it might be a vehicle that floats on air, so not only would vehicles become a thing of the past, but roads would also become passe and when you think of the amount of asphalt and concrete that goes into making roads, that could be quite a change.
So, there is always hope for the future not just with technology but with new and better ways of doing things. Believe it or not, universal education or a schooling for everyone system is less than a hundred years old, and it is based on averages. I expect a quantum change will come when we forget about averages and celebrate the individual instead. This is true for governments and bureaucracies as well. I think people will be a lot happier when they are treated as individuals, rather than rated as how they compare to a numerical average.
Think about this, human have advanced a lot since the last ice age ended around 10,000 years ago. As I kid, I can remember sputnik as the first satellite. Look at where we are now. Humans can now see the planet from space as it really is for the first time in human history. So, there are lots of reasons to be optimistic about the future despite the occasional pandemic.
All we need to do is learn how to do things better and more efficiently. We should look to the future and not get mired in today’s problems. I believe it will happen, just as I believe we are in the middle of berry picking season. So, enjoy the fall and don’t fret the small stuff.