Tired Of Being Resilient

TIRED OF BEING RESILIENT, he siad, with the fatigue paapable in his voice, teh emotional refrain-revelation of a man who lives in southern Louisiana. He was referring of course to the seemingly endless parade of killter hurricans, wondering how man more times he will have to replace and rebuild everything he owns. The answer is many and often, unless he finally decides to move, and let somebody else take on the nightmare. Problem is, obviously, that people are reluctant by nature to abandon ship, and also that no matter where he goes, he will be confronted by implacable forces of nature, one one sort or another. We should all be so revealing of ourselves, so contemplative about our plight, and possible solutions, of which ultimately there are few or none. We are going to have to become accustomed to being more resilient, to rebuilding from more extreme forms of weather, able, as Biden says, to build back better. The pandemic, if nothing else, is good practice for resiliency. As wave after wave of disease and death sweep across the nation, teh resiiience of teh population is tested, strained to teh limit. we are holding up remarkably well, and can be rightfully proud. The results, however, are mixed, as results usually are. Overall Americans are standing up to covid 19 bravely, defiantly, perhaps unreasonably, not only unwilling to surrender to it, but often unwilling to even acknowledge its existence. Anoother way of looking at it is that Americans are tired of bieng cautious, tored of being resilient by necessity, tired of acting intelligently and willing after seeming years of being shut up in their houses, and out of their offices, to roll the dice, to risk sickness and death if only to regain some semblance of cherished normalcy. we will never catch Covid 19 and die; the others will, so we can do as we please. In Hinduism, teh most remarkable thing about humans is that although they spend their entire lives seeing other people all around them dying, they believe that they will never die. The football stadiums, bars, and restaurants are open again, and full. Sometimes we wear makss, sometimes we do not. Sometimes we cover our noses with them, sometimes we don't, as if they are purely cosmetic. Almost lost in the cheering crowds are the fifteen hundred people dying every day of Covid 19. Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die.