The Road to Normal: How Long?

A week ago, things were looking up. We had not had a new case of covid-19 for 39 consecutive days, there was a plan to resume classes, people were out shopping, visiting scenic places, and feeling "normal." Life within the small bubble that is Macau was looking pretty good.

But then, the world began to come back. On Friday the 13th, it was reported that a group of students fled Portugal and returned to Macau. Then a few days later it was reported that another person returning from Portugal tested positive for covid-19. This was followed by news of more cases, including a student returning from the UK, a Filipina worker, and an Indonesian woman. The government responded by postponing the resumption of classes and closing the border to non-residents. Hopes for a return to "normal" were dashed, with no end date in sight.

While these events are disappointing and disheartening to us in Macau, reports of what is happening in the rest of the world (outside of China and neighboring regions of Asia) are also adding to the sense of gloom. The situation in Europe, with Italy as the "leader" in reported cases and deaths, is horrifying. And the west's nation that dominates global news, the United States, is now experiencing its own crisis. Burdened with a President who neglected or discounted the warning signs, the US is experiencing the rapid growth in cases with an unprepared health care system, and a large segment of the population that has been misled by "State TV" to distrust science and the "safe state" of competent and hard working people. Reading and watching the news is a way to vicariously experience the fears of early February all over again.

When will this end? No one knows. Not only will it take many months, perhaps more than a year, to find a health care solution to the virus, the economic damage will be deep and long-lasting. We do not know how many people will lose their jobs, businesses will go under, and the global supply chains that have developed in recent decades will break.

On a personal level, like millions of other people, I was used to the ease and speed of international travel, and felt that a flight to the US was in some ways easier than the 700 mile (1000+ km) drive that I often make between Oklahoma and Alabama. In January I took a flight from here to Jakarta, just for the weekend, to see friends and attend their wedding celebration. And we booked our tickets to the US in December, assuming that our normal summer break would happen as before.

However, I can say that with each passing day we are one day closer to the end, whatever that may be. Humanity has suffered through global pandemics in the past. And after much suffering, each has come to an end. This brings to mind what a wise man once wrote:

“Meaningless! Meaningless!” says the Teacher. 

“Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless.”

What do people gain from all their labors

    at which they toil under the sun?

Generations come and generations go,

    but the earth remains forever.

The sun rises and the sun sets,

    and hurries back to where it rises.

The wind blows to the south

    and turns to the north;

round and round it goes,

    ever returning on its course.

All streams flow into the sea,

    yet the sea is never full.

What has been will be again,

    what has been done will be done again;

    there is nothing new under the sun.

Let us hope that some day we will look back upon this time and be able to say that there is nothing new under the sun.