FOOTPRINTS IN THE SAND

 FOOTPRINTS IN THE SAND

Harry Bissoon 06/16/2020

It is time to take a pause and step back from our infatuation with life and the tides of our times, and look at ourselves from outside of our bodies, if we could ever muster the resources and ability to do such a thing.

We must realize that we are only 'quiet dust', drifting along with purpose, and sometimes not, it would seem, in the face of invisible, deadly threats, that could fatally devastate large swaths of humankind. We have become susceptible and fragile to nature's way of telling us that we are nothing.

We need to follow simple, basic principles of love, appreciation, caring, respect, and cleanliness, and to come to the realization that we are more than 'quiet dust' if we are to survive the prevarications of living.If we do not find our real selves, then that is all we will be - dust. We have inherited this dust from those who came before us, and we will pass it on to those who will come after us. Let us pass it on with the life force that we have acquired, nurtured and strengthened over the time that we have spent as travellers, in our sojourn in time and space.

We are now emerging from a period of agony, death, recriminations, sadness, and, in many cases, jubilation. We have seen how some simple, inanimate things, that we took for granted, assumed inflated and pregnant importance, further highlighting our insignificance. 

When news of the Covid-19 pandemic broke upon us, we scrambled for clarity and expert opinions about the nature of the fatal virus, searching desperately for causes and effects. Lockdowns, shutdowns,isolation, safety precautions, and the talk of economic catastrophe filled the airwaves and social media, resurrecting the deathly march of the Spanish Flu of 1918. Food and other basic necessities will become scarce, they said. and scenarios of doom emerged across the globe. But, instead of rushing for food items, we made a frantic dash for toilet paper!

Toilet paper had instantly graduated from being a simple commodity, spinning on a spool, being a good friend to us,g to a top shelf commodity, with a proud claim to championship status, filling our storage cabinets, overflowing and displacing other household necessities. The paper on a roll, soft and absorbent, was no longer silent. It had become a vocal and loud partner in its relationship with us, staring at us, not only in the toilet and bathroom but from every nook and cranny.

Toilet paper was always there, never objected to the task at hand, but the threat of Covid-19 magnanimously projected its simplicity, and, in the process, exposed our insignificance in the face of nature. 

As many nations - with heroes in the fields of science, medicine, health care, safety, community activism, and government - fight to minimize, even eradicate, the effects of Covid-19, let us resolve to be more cognizant of who we are, where we stand, and where we are going. We have to live with respect for each other, and respect for the forces of nature. We have to find out who we are. We have to discover that part of us that is not 'quiet dust', and to realize that that unseen part can make us stronger in what we do. We may not be able to conquer all the bad forces and viruses around us, but we can conquer ourselves and create footprints on the sands of time that will make us immortal.