Flattening the Curve
Greg Clary
Carl Jung claimed that the masses are the breeding
grounds of psychic epidemics.
George Bernard Shaw said that fashion trends
are nothing but an induced epidemic.
Billy Graham preached that the Church is
facing an epidemic of “Easy Believing.”
Wallace Stevens wrote that thoughts are an infection
with certain thoughts becoming an epidemic.
Siri told me of these epidemics:
Depression, AIDS, human trafficking,
obesity, racism, gun violence,
opiate use, suicide, dementia,
evictions of moms with kids.
But a pandemic? A global scourge
that threatens all of humanity in every region of the world?
Polio, Spanish flu, Zika, COVID-19?
Inconceivable. Not at my house.
My wife and I now swap new words:
Asymptomatic, ventilator, codon sequence,
epidemiology, pathogen, vector-borne,
mutant killer virus, pre-exposure prophylaxis.
We practice new behaviors:
Self-isolate, socially avoid,
disinfect, ShopStream,
cyber-hug, skype.
We speculate about tomorrow, and
the day after tomorrow, and
the day after that…