This Too Shall Pass

Where to begin? In late February, my wife and I were on a ski trip out west with some friends that we had been planning for months. As we came over the snow-covered Wasatch mountains into Salt Lake, the mood was light and the anticipation high for a great few days that we had worked so hard and saved for. Spring and the heavy workload it entails would be returning to Virginia not long after our return, so this was the final chance to decompress and recharge our batteries. As on most vacations, our contact with world news was sporadic. All of us had heard the news reports of some “bat virus” in China that had put a small portion of that country on what western society considered a typical overreaching communist style lockdown. But honestly, most of our concern was with the “historic” 12% drop in the stock market that week and trying to make our flights out on Monday after a Sunday snowstorm.

Not long after we arrived home, life changed forever. Not in the gut punch way of 9/11; no, more like a small snowball tumbling downhill, picking up mass and speed as it travels. The first indication for most of us (maybe as a commentary on our society for later discussion) was the “temporary” suspension of entertainment events. Sports, concerts and the like. Sporting events would take place, but without fans. Then the “BIG” shocker: March Madness was cancelled! Not too long after that, public schools closed. Then began the trickle of businesses; first restaurants, then gyms, then other forms of retail, and finally large manufacturers. Social distancing became the most unfamiliar/familiar term for us all in 2020.

As I write this we’re about one month out from the incubation of all the chaos in our American society — way too early to be making assumptions and predictions. I’ll be the first to admit for not the first, and I’m sure not the last, time in my life I got it all wrong. Never saw it coming. Like most of us, I’d like to think I would have been better prepared, in a lot of ways. But honestly, would I have been?

I can only fall back on this. Having lived through multiple military wars/conflicts, assassinations of Presidents and other leaders, financial highs/crashes, losses of immediate family and friends, serious health crises, and other highs and lows of what is the human condition, this too shall pass. Not in the way we might expect. Nor with the flippant kick-ass attitude we so often want to employ. And most certainly not without some serious loss of life, in the next few weeks and for years to come with stressrelated health issues.

And there will be many positives from this. Positives???? Yes. We will be changed (hopefully). Think of it more as a reordering. When we’ve wandered off the path physically, mentally, financially, personally, and professionally most of us are not wise enough to reorient ourselves without a significant life event. Yeah, yeah I know about that human condition thing and how easily we revert back to old ways after a period of time. I remember the concern for others “glow” that was great but eventually faded after 9/11.

So what are you and I going to learn from the great pandemic of 2020? What will we look back on one, five or ten years from now in sadness and shake our heads about? What will we remember of the goodness and smile? What behaviors and attitudes will we change? What good things will we reinforce and make better? It’s our choice.

Mark Vaughn, CGCS