“We are in the valley of the shadow of death. It is really dark. We know the sun is going to come up over a mountain at the other side of the valley, but it can’t rise fast enough.” — Science reporter Donald G. McNeil Jr., discussing the state of the pandemic on “The Daily” from The New York Times
“In North Dakota, you’ll see the most beautiful sunrises. Today is the most beautiful sunrise.” — Fargo physician Dr. Rishi Seth to reporter Jack Healy, last Monday just before he received one of the first COVID-19 vaccinations given in the United States
Mark well this middle week of the darkest December, for we will never forget it. For all their multitude of sins, big pharma and big government have come to the rescue, and men and women of science and medicine are now rolling up their sleeves to accept the best-ever holiday gift—a vaccine that has arrived just in time to help them gird for the many months of battle still ahead.
How fitting, too, that this historic event is taking place at the solstice, when we have mere hours of daylight in much of the Northern Hemisphere. The valley of death is still all around us, in relentlessly grim pandemic statistics and in months of Congressional dithering amid job and housing insecurity and long lines at the food banks. But the vaccines are arriving, more slowly than promised but much faster than we expected. Truth is finally dawning for many who’d prefer fiction, and the long nights will soon get a little shorter, minute by minute.
Given the events of this week, it feels like the world is leaning into the light as never before, actively choosing hope and repair over despair. Hope is a choice we’ll need to keep making over and over this long winter. Yet we need the darkness, too, as a time of rest and reflection. Even as we anticipate the return of what we knew as normal, we can use these winter months to consider what we want to save from this long pandemic year.
I want to hold onto the knowledge that even in a year I earned very little income, I found ways to share what I have—my time and talent, mostly, but even some treasure–because my government and my family and my friends have been generous to me. Amid this year of unparalleled loss and inept leadership, there has also been also widespread recognition that “all of us need all of us to make it,” in the words of the Rev. Theresa Soto.
Together, we have an opportunity to start remaking our world. We can end the pandemic through science, we can encourage reason as a road to happiness, and we can adopt mutual care and concern as the ground on which we stand.
Here are links to The Daily’s interviews with Donald G. McNeil Jr. (Dec. 14) and healthcare professionals receiving the first vaccines (Dec. 15). Deep gratitude to the essential workers who have labored overtime all year, and for whom much hard work remains. May you stay well.
Thank you for reading Surely Joy. You can find the first Pandemic Postcards and my earlier writings here. If you’d like to get future posts via email, look for the link on the right side of this page (or maybe below this post, if you’re on a mobile device). I write for a living, so if you enjoy my work, feel free to hit the tip jar.