Day 123

July 12, 2020

Countries that have impressively decreased cases and deaths in this battle against COVID-19, which by the way the U.S is leading in total cases and number of deaths, are countries which learned from the mistakes of China and Italy and Spain. They quickly and efficiently took a plan of action and the people responded with great diligence and care great care for their health and the health of those around them. We were given time to prepare and we did not respond accordingly. In fact we failed miserably. 

The countries that have led the way in decreasing virus cases and most importantly deaths are New Zealand, Taiwan, Denmark, Norway, Iceland and even Germany a country smaller than Spain yet more densely populated (and we know what happen in Spain).

All of these countries, by no coincidence, are run by women.  Women who are smart and have the ability to lead.  They showed genuine empathy and care for their people.  They led the charge in performing the preventive tasks needed for reducing the spread of the virus.  They communicated to their country with heartfelt speeches using television and social media in some cases, but in all cases using love and compassion. 

These amazing women are Angela Merkel, the Chancellor of Germany, Tsai Ing-wen in Taiwan, Jacinda Ardern in New Zealand, Iceland Prime Minister Katrín Jakobsdóttir, and Norway’s Prime Minister, Erna Solberg. Compared to the bull-headed male leaders using authority, fear and blame during a crisis.  All of these tactics have accelerated not only the spread of the virus, but the anxiety and mistrust among their people.  Men could learn from the leadership of women.

Women are astounding. They have been astounding us for all time. Today, more than ever, we have women leading us in all fields. A few fields: Scientists, doctors, scholars, educators and poets.  When poet (and astronomer) Rebecca Elson was diagnosed with non-Hodgkins Lymphoma before she turned 30 she met the reality of her situation head on and head strong she continued to write scientific essays and a poetry book, entitled A Responsibility to Awe, until the world took her before her fortieth birthday.

In this poem anthology she wrote arguably her best piece, known as ANTIDOTES TO FEAR OF DEATH:

Sometimes as an antidote
To fear of death,
I eat the stars.

Those nights, lying on my back,
I suck them from the quenching dark
Til they are all, all inside me,
Pepper hot and sharp.

Sometimes, instead, I stir myself
Into a universe still young,
Still warm as blood:

No outer space, just space,
The light of all the not yet stars
Drifting like a bright mist,
And all of us, and everything
Already there
But unconstrained by form.

And sometime it’s enough
To lie down here on earth
Beside our long ancestral bones:

To walk across the cobble fields
Of our discarded skulls,
Each like a treasure, like a chrysalis,
Thinking: whatever left these husks
Flew off on bright wings.

Ek wens u alles van die beste toe ( I wish you all the best-translated from Afrikaans)