Many young people are tragically ignoring orders to shelter in a place and avoid close contact with others, jeopardizing the health and lives of the rest of us.
For instance, after California Gov. Gavin Newsom issued a shelter-in-place order on March 20, many public spaces such as beaches were so full that officials in some cities had to close parks, recreation areas and beaches.
I know many young people feel invincible, but this virus is reminding all of us of our mortality
Celebrities, politicians and young people who have made news by downplaying the significance of the virus are now making news with their public apologies.
As much as this pandemic is changing our lives and our world, here’s what it cannot change: you and I are no less mortal than we were before the pandemic started, and eternity is no less real.
C.S. Lewis said as much in his book titled “On Living in an Atomic Age.” He urged his readers: “Do not let us begin by exaggerating the novelty of our situation. Believe me, dear sir or madam, you and all whom you love were already sentenced to death before the atomic bomb was invented: and quite a high percentage of us were going to die in unpleasant ways.”
The bomb merely “added one more chance of painful and premature death to a world which already bristled with such chances and in which death itself was not a chance at all, but a certainty.”
What is true of atomic bombs is true of viral pandemics as well.
We will all meet death.
Please young people, and others, let’s not rush the process.
You are the hope of future generations to come. If each one of us does our part we will get through this trying time.
Thank you.
