Today is Palm Sunday. "A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road ..." says the Gospel. Not during the pandemic. Nature's dangerous mutation has changed everything. COVID-19 has disrupted life's rhythms, from the daily commute to work, to religious meetings, to children's school and after school activities, to the weekly rituals of mall shopping, and sports from the knockabout in the park to the major leagues.
I gave up "going to church" twenty-five years ago and practice my spirituality in a different space. Still, I feel for those for whom the ritual of church, temple, synagogue or mosque has been a major part of a weekly and worthwhile pattern. Who knows when it will return to "normal," if it ever will.
Marina Koren, in a recent article in The Atlantic, documents how the change in human behavior has already produced large-scale effects, including seismic vibrations. The slowdown in human life has literally altered the vibrations of the earth. Scientists have observed, too, a significant decrease in air pollution as cars sit idly on streets and driveways. According to the World Health Organization air pollution kills 4.2 million people a year. Stanford professor Marshall Burke estimates that the drop in air pollution in China alone has likely saved the lives of 4,000 young children and 73,000 elderly adults. As of this morning, according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center deaths in China from COVID-19 stand at 3,333. Noise pollution has also decreased. Our son who lives in a fortieth floor apartment in Bangkok sent us a video from his balcony. Forty floors high, instead of the hum of traffic we listened to the crickets and other night creatures. The drop in human activity has changed nature's rhythms. I wonder how long it will take for nature to take over parking lots and city streets?
Still, it's likely that when by human ingenuity we "conquer" the virus we will revert to old patterns, disrupt nature's emerging rhythm, and impose ourselves again. But perhaps not. What if forced by nature, and with more humility than hubris, we discover a more aware, slower, calmer and kinder rhythm to life?
+Ab. Andy
"The Pandemic is Turning the Natural World Upside Down"https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2020/04/coronavirus-pandemic-earth-pollution-noise/609316/