In Mourning For What We Chose Not To Learn From The Pandemic

I’ll never get over our unwillingness to grow and evolve

I’m one of those weird people who always looks at difficult and painful times as opportunities for growth.

I admit it’s harder when it’s me personally being put through the paces, but even then, there’s a part of me that knows this hardship has a purpose, that my wounds will be healed, that I will emerge stronger on the other side.

I appreciate the concept of a Dark Night of the Soul for both individuals and collective cultures.

I respect the alchemical power inherent in struggle, loss, and pain to transform us into wiser, stronger, and kinder human beings.

And so it pains me to see the continued and increasing push against vaccines, against mask-wearing, against mask mandates for college living, and so many other calls to move on as if we haven’t just lost over three million souls worldwide.

Watching Tucker Carlson tell his viewers they should call the police if they see a child wearing a mask because, as he says, it is akin to child abuse is a staggering, horrifying abdication of our duties as citizens for and to each other.

Just as it pained me to watch our America flail under the Trump administration to even admit we had a runaway pandemic, it pains me now to see how much of that false information, repeated on loops, became true in the minds of so many of our friends and neighbors.

I recently learned that a relative and her family of five are opting out of the vaccine. Her mother apparently lost her sense of taste and smell before getting the vaccine, and then blamed the symptoms on the vaccine in hindsight. Little sense that makes.

But, they now believe that the vaccine is more dangerous than the virus. Whether or not they will vaccinate their young children I do not know—though the children have had all the other required vaccines over the years.

This pandemic had the potential to be a great learning experience for our world on so many levels. We could’ve learned about the science behind vaccines to help combat the conspiracy theories. We could’ve, as a world, come together to aid each other. We could’ve pooled resources instead of fighting over them. We could’ve taught our children what it means to sacrifice (if you can call wearing a mask a sacrifice) for the good of the whole.

Millions of people lost their lives, and I don’t see that we’ve made any progress toward preventing a future pandemic. Joseph Stalin said, “A single death is a tragedy, a million is a statistic.” What, I wonder, is three million? Four?

We could’ve done so many things during this time of the Great Pause. We could’ve reimagined all kinds of systems, governments, and ways of life. But we have not.

We have not taken this time to educate ourselves on caring for each other in times of great need.

We have not reimagined education so that all children from disadvantaged means and backgrounds can benefit from the same materials and support more advantaged kids have.

We have not updated our medical facilities and health care programs in light of the exposed weaknesses, nor addressed the racial and income inequalities experienced by so many.

We have not talked about the widespread lack of trust in science and learning—where it came from, and what must be done to rectify that.

We have not addressed the inability of a capitalist, perpetual growth, consumerist society to support the people in times of need instead of exploiting them.

And so much more.

Now that things are starting to open up again, I can’t help but mourn for the lost opportunity to grow, evolve, and above all, remember what it is supposed to mean to be human beings walking this earth together.

This can only mean that the next time—and there will be a next time—will be much, much worse.

My conditioning as both a writer and a human being is to leave this on some hopeful note. But tonight, I don’t have one. Tonight, I’m in mourning.

Thanks for reading.

Keri Mangis

Award-Winning Author & Wholeness Advocate

Founder: KeriMangis.com Interview on Illumination Self-Introduction Video-Introduction

Author: Embodying Soul: A Return to Wholeness — A Memoir of New Beginnings, winner of the 2020 IPA for Body, Mind and Spirit

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