The Winds

 

“We cannot direct the winds, but we can adjust our sails”

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Good advice for a sailor, but also good advice for times of trouble, whether personal or widespread.  Any sailor knows that the winds will blow in the direction dictated by weather patterns and if he wants to get anywhere in his sailing ship, he will have to make the best use of his sails.  And sometimes that means often not going directly in the direction that he wants to go.

But why is that relevant in times of trouble, such as the current coronavirus pandemic?  It’s relevant if we think of the virus as the wind.  It is going to continue to go in the direction it is destined.  Its direction is to travel from person to person in order to cause infection and illness, and yes even death.  It is not going to change direction.  So, as any good sailor would, we have to adjust our sails which means going in whatever direction that will keep us from catching and succumbing to the virus.  That seems simple enough.  Accept the advice of medical professionals to wear masks and maintain physical distancing.  If we had all done that early when the virus showed up it might have prevented the disruption that has ensued.  Even now, there are those who refuse to adjust their sails.  They have a litany of excuses why they won’t do this.  “The coronavirus is a hoax or a government conspiracy”, “I have a constitutional right not to do these things”, “We have to keep the economy going no matter what”.  But you have no constitutional right to infect others which is half the battle. “Don’t get it, don’t spread it” could be the slogan for these times.  

But there are those who still will not adjust their sails and will keep trying to go in the same direction despite the sudden change in the wind when the virus arrived. And we are already getting the same lame excuses about why people should not or will not get the vaccine that will eventually be developed.  The anti-vaccers are already at full volume about this. But a vaccine is the only way that the spread of the virus can be definitively changed.

But there are still those who resist common sense. And so, in his bravado fashion of not accepting the medical advice of his own expert, President Donald Trump has caught the virus and has been sent to the hospital.  The same fate landed on two other leaders who tried to downplay the virus, the President of Brazil and the Prime Minister of Great Britain.  World leaders who cannot or will not adjust their sails, no matter which way the wind blows, are not much good for the people they govern or the world at large.

So, let us admit that the wind has changed for now and adjust our sails accordingly.