BY KAREN BOSSICK

As the number of coronavirus cases in Idaho spike, we’re reminded once again that doing business as usual is dangerous and that those standing next to us in the store may be walking biohazards

As we look at our country--a country in which 50 governors are in charge of trying to figure out how to achieve a happy medium between a total shutdown and letting the virus run roughshod—it may be helpful to remember once again that we’re not the first to go through this.

Americans went through it a century ago during the Spanish influenza, which started in 1917 and lasted into 1919. And they, too, practiced safety measures such as wearing facemasks to deny the virus its next victims.

Hailey resident Sherry Thorson dug up this picture and this poem. It’s interesting to note that the poem has an environmental component, especially at a time when the current pandemic has all but shut down efforts to address current environmental issues

It has been reported that it was written in 1869, but it was actually written by a retired chaplain and teacher from Madison, Wis., named Kitty O’Meara about her experience staying at home during the COVID-19 pandemic. It will be published in a children’s book this fall and its words have been set to music:

“In the Time of Pandemic”

“And the people stayed at home.

And they listened and read books, and rested, and exercised, and made art, and played games, and learned new ways of being, and were still.

And they listened more deeply. Some meditated, some prayed. Some met their shadows. And the people began to think differently.

And people healed.

And, in the absence of people living in ignorant, dangerous, and heartless ways, the earth began to heal.

And when the danger passed, and the people joined together again, they grieved their losses, and made new choices, and dreamed new images, and created new ways to live and heal the earth fully, as they had been healed.”