No, I'm not going to slander the corona virus. I'm not going to talk about how miserable the overall morale is. I'm not going to say the same things that have been said over and over again.
This doesn't mean that I don't mourn for all the lives lost because of the pandemic, all the people that have lost jobs, all the daily wage workers who struggle every day to feed their families. I'm merely saying...these things have been talked about to the point of exhaustion.
The entire world was on a lockdown with absolutely no permissible social contact. Yet, somehow, the lockdown brought us all together.
They said love knows no boundaries. Love would unite us all, they said. But in the end, it was a virus. A lifeless, cold, emotionless pathogen. An indestructable force of nature.
Across borders and oceans, we united. Yet, within borders, we discriminated and marginalized.
The enemy knew nor cared about bounds or boundaries. But humanity still found a way to distance and shun. The virus, in all its deadly beauty, killed indiscriminately; while humanity, with its toxic schemes, hurt thoughtlessly. The virus ended lives, we made lives not worth living.
Which is worse, I ask you. A life that ends too soon, or a life of suppression and suffering that stretches on forever?
Are we, as a race, incapable of harmonious living? Are we, as a species, an example of self-destruction and mayhem? Are we, as human beings, not worth the life that has been given to us? Are we, never, ever, ever, going to be content with what we have?
At the brink of despair, when humanity has proven itself wicked, selfish and hideous; at the end of your tether, unfeeling, as you stare into the abyss; you hear a soft whisper in the empty, a melancholy tune in the hurricane, a subtle glow in the darkness. For, ladies and gentlemen, Hope still remains in Pandora's box.
Hope.
For Hope, we seldom realize, can be found in the most unexpected of places. It can take the form of a professional baker who took to YouTube to tell people how to survive with the rations they had on hand. It can take the form of a math teacher that drove to a student's house with a whiteboard to stand in her lawn and teach her the math homework she didn't quite understand. It can take the form of the mailman, who serenaded an old lady with a happy birthday song from across the fence when family was not allowed to visit her on her big day. It can take the form of the professor who decided to make all his lectures free for students throughout the world missing out on their education. It can take the form of an introvert, sitting at home, making half a dozen Netflix accounts and sharing the passwords on social media to make someone else's lockdown just that much easier. It can take the form of the comic book fan, staying up all night, uploading his collection of comics on online platforms because that might make someone's lockdown a little more enjoyable. It takes the form of the bonds of friendship that have blossomed across the globe, people reaching out to strangers for companionship and comfort. It can take the form of a celebrity, who used this time to make a YouTube channel dedicated to good news.
For when it comes to heroes, there are no small ones. This is what humanity looks like. Chivalry isn't dead. Beauty still exists. Comraderie still thrives. Love still prevails.
But they are all buried. They all loom under the surface, for fear of being crushed by the ugliness of the human race. Despite it all, they do exist. Fragile, yet strong; as a constant reminder to those of us who look for answers.
That Hope will never abandon us. She has been here all along.