Margaret Mead said that the first sign of civilization in an ancient culture was a femur (thighbone) that had been broken and then healed. Mead explained that in the animal kingdom, if you break your leg, you die. You cannot run from danger, get to the river for a drink or hunt for food. You are meat for prowling beasts. No animal survives a broken leg long enough for the bone to heal. A broken femur that has healed is evidence that someone has taken time to stay with the one who fell, has bound up the wound, has carried the person to safety and has tended the person through recovery. Helping someone else through difficulty is where civilization starts. We are at our best when we serve others.
Covid 19 is a new virus. The medical community is studying as fast as it can in order to understand it and all of its implications. Whether or not one trusts the CDC, whether or not one trusts the WHO, there are dedicated doctors working their hearts out to try to find out how this virus works, thus, there will be many, many different theories for some time to come. We’re in a better position than we were in the middle ages when doctors were trying to figure out the plague. We have the technology to figure out disease trajectories and cures in years rather than centuries. However, it’s not going to happen if it continues to be a political question instead of a medical question.
That first patient who had a broken femur had a friend or family member who stayed with him, caring for him, bringing his own experience to bear to take care of his loved one in the best way he knew how. In a civilized society why are we not doing that? Why are we letting politics guide us into a need for “freedom” at the expense of our loved ones? It doesn’t matter if one thinks masks are not efficacious. If there is a chance that wearing one will save one life, why not? Masks have been around for at least a century and no one dies wearing one. IF that were true, surgeons would be dropping like flies and I, for one, am pleased that everyone in the hospital that took care of my grandson this past week did wear one.
If social distancing will save just one life, I prefer to be one of the social distanced. I don’t want to be responsible for a death I might have prevented.
If contact tracing will help the scientists figure out how easily and in what way this virus is spread, then what’s the harm? Doctors have been using contact tracing forever and, until recently, no one objected. If one has secrets and doesn’t want electronic monitoring, then fine, but why not be willing to speak about where you’ve been and with whom you’ve been in contact?
The scientific method:
- Make an observation.
- Ask a question.
- Form a hypothesis, or testable explanation.
- Make a prediction based on the hypothesis.
- Test the prediction.
- Iterate: use the results to make new hypotheses or predictions.
Those who have made the testing of a prediction into a political cry for freedom are sabotaging the experiment. Worse yet, there are countries who HAVE followed the experiment and are in much better shape than those of us in the US.
New Zealand jumped on Covid 19 and is winning.
https://www.dw.com/en/jacinda-ardern-leadership-in-coronavirus-response/a-53733397
Denmark is also doing well.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7217796/
Finland, Hungry, Iceland, Ireland, and Thailand are also winning the war on Covid 19. Why do we not look at what they are doing that works and try it too?
If, indeed, Margaret Mead was right. If civilization is based on being willing to help another of our tribe, then we must do what will save the lives of the few as well as the many. When someone like Betsy Devos says that only a small percentage of children will die if we open the schools, I don’t see civilization in action. Each one of those children is a member of our tribe. If savage is the antithesis of civilized, isn’t it savage to force a parent to send his child into an uncertain situation in order to make money? Is the value of the life of that child based on economic need? If Margaret Mead wasn’t right, does that mean Jesus was also wrong when he said, “Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.” Did he not mean that if we take care of each other we do it for Him?
When Jesus gave us the new commandment to love one another as he has loved us, does that not mean to do the things he did for the love of his people? He healed the sick, he fed the poor, he taught that which he knew to be true based on his relationship with Universal Truth. Isn’t this a command to heal the sick, feed the poor and form a relationship with Universal Truth BEFORE we try to teach others?
Science is a search for truth. The scientists began from scratch with Covid 19 and are feeling their way through the maze of misinformation, missed opportunity and new information in order to figure out the genesis and cure for this vicious disease. Why have we made this into a political football? Why does this have anything at all to do with personal freedom? Why can’t we at least help with this experiment? If we don’t, we won’t be controlled by a government, we will be controlled by a virus. The LACK of personal and governmental control is what allows the virus to take over and destroy the lives of our tribal brothers and sisters.
I have to decide for myself whether I’m going to live my life as a savage or a civilized member of a tribe. And so do you. Are you going to help the loved one with the broken femur or are you going to go one about your business while he dies?
Teri's Healing Tides 