COVID-19: One Million Dead in Less than a Year

One million dead.

Over one million people across the world have died in less than a year; 240,000 right here at home.

One million people who should still be here, living their lives, if it weren't for this virus; 240,000 people, many of whom would still be alive if our administration had done what they were supposed to do months ago.

I have been feeling inexplicably sad all week. The weight of one million dead hits me at the most unexpected of times, and that it just as easily could have, and still could be, me. Often, I think maybe I'm just being dramatic, wondering why I seem to be the only one so sad about these losses and the losses to come. I try to remind myself that being empathetic to this doesn't make me weak, it makes me human.

One million dead. It's hard to even wrap your head around. If you're struggling, here is what one million looks like. It is someone's parent, child, grandparent, friend, or colleague. It is someone who had a future in front of them and now doesn't.

Almost worse, I see how a pandemic that we thought would bring us together is actually tearing us apart. I see how it should expose the inequities that are so deeply entrenched in our nation and yet, people refuse to acknowledge these truths.

"The pandemic has exposed shocking failures of governance, worsened deep-rooted inequalities in access to healthcare, and inflamed a long-waged war on facts preventing scientists from conveying information that could save lives."

To be honest, I am at a loss for words and actions at the moment. All I can say is, if it wasn't already obvious to you: WE NEED TO VOTE. We cannot let what is happening in our country to continue.

Stay Beautiful,

Sadie

@revelatori on Instagram

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CNN. (n.d.) One million dead: How Covid-19 tore us apart. Retrieved on 9/28/2020 from https://www.cnn.com/interactive/2020/09/world/global-covid-deaths-one-million/?fbclid=IwAR0QnPBNqOBfwe-XHwiHwnETFHCY865gL52ZFqGfd4gkyb2DdnofwIo_bns. 

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Pandemic

What if you thought of it

as the Jews consider the Sabbath—

the most sacred of times?

Cease from travel.

Cease from buying and selling.

Give up, just for now,

on trying to make the world

different than it is.

Sing. Pray. Touch only those

to whom you commit your life.

Center down.

And when your body has become still,

reach out with your heart.

Know that we are connected

in ways that are terrifying and beautiful.

(You could hardly deny it now.)

Know that our lives

are in one another’s hands.

(Surely, that has come clear.)

Do not reach out your hands.

Reach out your heart.

Reach out your words.

Reach out all the tendrils

of compassion that move, invisibly,

where we cannot touch.

Promise this world your love–

for better or for worse,

in sickness and in health,

so long as we all shall live.

– Lynn Ungar 03/11/2020