With the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and sports taking a break, we had seen changes in the people and the environment we thought we won’t be seeing in our lifetime. With some editing, let me share the following from a fellow Bosconian, Fr. Abet Caballero, SDB.
The disease had:
- Made people kneel down to the Lord and pray because many had simply forgotten HIM. God closed the places of worship and made us realize that only HE can make the high and the mighty kneel.
- Made families whole again. Working from home, parents are spending precious moments with their children and are now having meals together.
- Made children stay at home when before, parents are having headaches on how to keep them inside the house.
- Instead of soft drinks and junk foods, children are now drinking fruit juices and are eating healthy foods to strengthen their immune system.
- Vices drastically stopped. Drinking, smoking, and gambling were minimized. Probably womanizing too.
- It made known to all those who have helpful and generous hearts and those who don’t take advantage of the situation.
- It also showed the true colors of the traditional politicians and the affluent blinded by their twisted sense of entitlement, instead of doing their share in combating the disease. But how can we justify the bashing of a certain VIP’s excursion in a hospital when we are joining the mad rush to supermarkets and defying all protocols of social distancing?
- In general, it showed us who really cares and who doesn’t.
- Pollution is greatly reduced because factories had shut down and vehicles were kept off the streets. Mother Earth is having a big sigh of relief.
- It forced people to walk because of the lack of transportation. In a way, it’s exercising. 10,000 steps a day is good for one’s well-being.
- Many are now afraid of eating exotic foods and are changing their diets to much healthier foods.
If God Almighty
hears our prayers in getting rid of COVID-19, we hope that it will not also
bring with it the good it has now done to our lives. Because we had abused
nature for so long, it fought back!
We can’t take lightly the global health crisis we’re facing now, yet some
people refuse to understand the gravity of the situation which changes by the
hour. Stupidly insensitive, they post on
social media photos with captions like ‘having a COVID party’ or ‘looking for
COVID’. They are the same species of
misguided individuals who are questioning the precautions made by the
government and the rest of the local government units. Instead of taunting and
mocking them, use that misplaced sense of bravado to help authorities with
their efforts for the community.
Let us also be considerate and be respectful to the efforts of our health frontliners, who are risking their own lives to save the lives of people they don’t even know. Before we say that we’re fed up with being locked up at home eating sardinas and Lucky Me, watching K-dramas and doing TikTok, let’s think about them. As much as they would want to stay with their loved ones, they are away from home and are constantly exposed to danger. Let’s be thankful that unlike our brave doctors, nurses and health workers, we’re relatively safe if we stay at home. Like us, they also want to survive this ordeal./PN
