GOSHAY: Reflecting on how pandemic changed us all

This month, and in the years to come, there will be more written about the COVID-19 pandemic than any of us will ever be able to read.

We know this much is true: It has changed everything.

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It seems that every so often, we Americans require a crisis to shake us out of our naivete and complacency. COVID-19 has laid bare our selflessness and our selfishness; our courage and our cravenness.

Asked not to panic, we did precisely that.

Walking through the grocery store after work that evening, the fear was palatable. The frozen-food section was picked clean. Same with the empty shelves that once contained antiseptic wipes, household cleaners and bleach.

We’ve lost so much to COVID-19 that it’s immeasurable. It has robbed us of things as simple as our daily routines, family gatherings, and the kind of rites of passage that anchor us and help to define who we are.

We’ve been cruelly deprived of the things that sweeten life and gift us with memories.

We’ve been reminded, in hard and unforgettable ways, how easily we take freedom for granted.

If there is any good to be gleaned, the pandemic has highlighted our natural ability to adapt, which explains how humans continue to survive despite our best efforts to destroy the planet.

It has transformed us all in ways we have yet to understand.

I haven’t listened to music for a year - I’m not sure why given how much I love it - but I do now listen to sports talk radio, guys yammering about teams and sports I neither care about nor follow.

The pandemic has required us to adapt, which helps to explain how humans continue to survive despite our best efforts to destroy the planet.

It has forced us to be braver, more creative, even ingenious.

If there is any hope to be had, it is that a vaccine has been developed and is being distributed across the planet.

Though there have been days of despair, moments when grief has engulfed our shores and time has stood still, the sliver of light we see in the distance mercifully reminds us that everything, even this thing, has a beginning, a middle and an end.

Reach Charita at 330-580-8313 or charita.goshay@cantonrep.com. On Twitter: @cgoshayREP