"It was the best of times. It was the worst of times"*

Charles Dickens writing in 1859 about the cities of London and Paris engulfed in turmoil and death could not have known how true his words would resonate almost two centuries later.Present-day Armageddon would spread and touch every city, every Continent -even Antarctica- every man, every woman and would change our lives forever.

We have been foolish for so long, believing money and power could protect us, and to a certain degree it has but at the cost of condemning others, building castles in the sand swept away by a tide of events as huge and unforeseen as the world has ever known.

The virus has spared no one but those with means to access the best care have been mostly saved; the poor left to die outside hospitals begging for air.

The pandemic has brought to surface the buried line dividing us; the one we told ourselves was disappearing in view of the gigantic growth of the last decades.

Wade Davis gives a fine example at a supermarket checkout counter in Canada. The cashier may acknowledge that the customer is wealthier, has a bigger house, a larger income. But if her or his child falls ill (not necessarily from Covid) said child will be treated exactly the same way, by the same doctors, as the customer’s child. Hell! He or she will be treated the same way as Justin Trudeau’s children.

And that is the foundation of social peace.

Not everyone in the big house with the big car but everyone guaranteed a fair chance of survival.

America is the most powerful country in the world. Still. That is was run by a narcissistic dangerous clown –at present it is not run by anyone- was a subject of heated debate.

The U.S. has 4% of the world’s population and 25% of the world’s deaths from Covid. These numbers speak miles about their failing safety net. If the US cannot get its act together and give everyone a fair chance, what is there to be expected from the rest of us?

The result is the voices of dissidence, and that of those in power, grow louder, the language more invective, the hatred more raw, the future more uncertain, there and everywhere.

But I also see a lot turning their backs on wild spending, futile purchases and empty possessions that bring no lasting joy, only the jolt a junkie feels when he gets a fix.I see people reaching out not only to family and close friends -our new-found priciest possessions- but sometimes to perfect strangers.

I see people starting to acknowledge others, to see the other in the room. I see some barriers falling; color and race and also gender.

It builds up slowly like a swell out in the open sea, gradually coming to shore. I see us walking more, listening more, and enjoying the planet and its marvels, counting our blessings.

I cringe, badly, at woke touchy-feely ways and am very skeptical of syrupy statements that leaves one feeling uncomfortably gooey with nothing to say.

But I am touched by our humanity. Our resilience and the way we were able to change and adapt in dire circumstances -all in under one year- speaks long about the strengths we had in us and did not know.

This was a quiet and kind of sad Xmas –too many deaths behind, too much uncertainty ahead- with little of the trappings we used to rely on like mountains of presents and food, miles of decorations and lights and entering a credit-card marathon.

Maybe you were lucky to have some family or a couple of friends, or maybe not. But you probably have never gotten more messages, more voice mails or more wishes.

Maybe it was just one phone call from a long ago friend or maybe you made that phone call and gave someone a gift like no other.

This is what it is all about. It is simple. It is easy to do. We really need very little -except of course a fair chance for everyone. We need to care and to be there. Find joy in the process because the other is like no one else you’ll ever meet.

This is a once in a lifetime experience in a once in a lifetime, yours; in a once in a lifetime planet, ours.

Meanwhile Voyager 2 is travelling to the Ross star carrying a message from us. It will reach its destination in 193,000 years, long after we have ceased to exist. Makes you dream, believe and wonder.

*“It was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us”.

A Tale of Two Cities, by Charles Dickens (1857)