Friday Nov 13

Friday, March 13 was a lifetime ago. In real-time, it was nine months ago. It was the time before the coronaverse. It was the day the world stopped. We paused from fear of the unknown virus that was spreading around the globe at an alarming rate. The governments of the world closed businesses and an entire way of life on Friday the thirteenth.

Things may never be the same again.

Nine months later the number of people newly infected was far higher than it was back on that ignominious day in March. Lockdowns were threatened again across this nation. In BC we were being told not to gather again and not to travel. In Toronto, they have closed restaurants, bars, and told people to stay home. In Manitoba they have gone to condition red, locked down, they try to flatten the curve. Our medical experts want to stop the spread. The cost of shutting down is very high and many leaders are looking for another way. They are looking for a way to flatten the curve without flattening the economy.

It’s sometimes hard to remember what it was like in the before times. Before Covid19 our news was filled with US politics and the collapse of oil prices. On the periphery, word of a disease that could become a pandemic spread from China to Iran and was beginning to spread across the globe. It was a sudden lockdown and it started in Canada on the thirteenth of March.

Ironically it was Friday the thirteenth, considered unlucky since the middle ages. It certainly felt unlucky on that day and in those moments. Little did I know, in other ways, it was lucky for me and many others.

Unfortunately, countless more have paid the ultimate price.

Today ghosts of Fridays passed haunt our world. The past seems somehow different now. Time continues to pass us by and this Friday the thirteenth ends with calm chaos. They may lock everyone down again, but at least it wasn’t today. I hope it isn’t tomorrow…