I realize that I come from a position of privilege, and I’m grateful for that. Today though, I’m grateful for my obstacles and the examples of people who accomplish much despite of …

I’m grateful that I have a mind that lets me recognize things to be grateful for despite of the many times it spins to analyze hidden pitfalls of good things that happen.

I’m grateful to have a body that functions within suggested guidelines. I admire people who do so much despite the debilitating pain and fatigue they have every day.

I’m grateful that I didn’t have the challenges with my children which I saw other parents have with theirs. I’m grateful that my kids picked good friends.

I’m grateful for obstacles that turned into stepping stones.

#GiveThanks

On my Social media feeds today, I’m seeing pictures of a map with outbreak stats in alarming colors and the text accompanying it talks about how future generations are going to wonder about why people didn’t wear masks.

Umm, NO, future generations if they even know about this time won’t care any more than you cared about the anti-mask movement of 1918, the swimming pool and theatre closures of 1952 and the “don’t worry about it, only gay men get it” feelings of the 1980’s AID pandemic.

Social issues rarely get press time in textbooks unless they influence future policy.

Think about it for a second, anti-vaxxers today tell us that the vaccine for polio is a bigger threat than the disease. They tell us that the photos of people in iron lungs are faked and it’s all about Bill Gates trying to microchip the world.

When you went to nursing or medical school, did they talk about the overtaxed staff in the polio wards or how the medical system was overloaded during the Spanish flu pandemic so they would send people home to die?

Maybe there were family stories. To this day I have trouble with my Aunt’s anti-vax attitude since my grandmother would tell me how grateful she was that same Aunt and Uncle got the real vaccine in the polio trial. The invitation to participate came after my father survived a polio infection. And the family story is that he survived because of miraculous blessing.

Since history repeats itself, the things I’m more worried about right now is giving government control to regulate even more of my life because temporary orders get lifted but permanent laws take a long time to be repealed. (Google how long the government kept collecting the tax to pay back the debt of the Spanish American war).

I will follow my state and county orders to stay at home and I will wear a mask in public and after they have either a vaccine or a cure, I will have stories to get my progeny which they may or may not believe based on their friends and social media circles. I wonder though what historians will say about this time, will they remember the political upheaval? Will they remember the social distancing? Will they talk about how it was the start of the permanent divide or the catalyst that brought the world together? History is written by the victors who will be victorious and write how we are remembered?