Anyone who has ever travelled in developing nations can tell you that people who live in sometimes quite dire circumstances tend to be amazingly, at least from a privileged Western viewpoint, happy and resilient.
We marvel at this fact because our own experience of the world is so much better, we can’t imagine what it would be like.
For the vast majority of us in Canada, this pandemic has been our first real experience with a major crisis. And even at that, the adversity we faced pales in comparison to what our forebears when through during the Second World War and what hundreds of millions of people in the world face on a daily basis.
Given what we are used to, it is not unexpected nor unacceptable that we would grumble and complain about what relatively little disruption we faced. And we, most of us anyway, rolled with it and found a way to be resilient and happy throughout.
Still, this summer has been a bit of a revelation. As masks came off and restrictions were eased, we were able to find a new level of appreciation for the little things we used to take for granted, like the smile on a cashier’s face, shaking hands after a round of golf, having a sit-down meal with friends in a restaurant, being entertained in a live setting rather than virtually.
It is probably too much to ask people to remember how we felt coming out of this. We tend to slip back into our comfort zones.
Unfortunately, it is starting to look like, we are going to get another chance, sooner rather than later, of how it feels to come out of lockdown as Canada has now officially entered a fourth wave of the pandemic.
B.C. and other provinces are already starting to ramp up restrictions again.
What is most unfortunate is that it didn’t have to be this way. Unlike many of those developing nations where they are begging for more vaccines, Canada had both the abundant supply and capacity to make sure every single eligible citizen could get it.
Imagine how frustrating it must be for health officials and frontline workers that so many people chose not to.