Letter by Rodger Hamilton to the CoronaVirus

Dear Pandemic,

You’re back. But this time it’s different. 

You came in 1918 as the Spanish Flu, infected one third of us and killed over 50 million of us. Then you vanished as fast as you came. 

You returned in 1957 as the Asian Flu, and killed two million of us. Then you were gone.

You appeared again in 2009 as H1N1 - the Swine Flu. You infected a quarter of us and 200,000 of us died - less than the deaths each year from the common flu.

And here you are again today.

Each time we call you a Pandemic. 

Each time we panic. 

Each time you kill far less of us but we panic far more.

Because you are not a pandemic of death or even disease. You are a pandemic of fear. 

In 2009 that fear showed up in our media, in our stock markets, and in our every day lives. And you’ve given us that same big fright today.

But you’ve been here enough times that this time it’s different. 

This time we see you for who you really are:

A global ghost of our worries, anxieties and deepest fears.

And as with any ghost, you can only grow if we feed you.

And if we don’t, you disappear.

So this time, 

instead of fear we choose freedom.

Instead of panic we chose peace.

Instead of loss we chose love.

Thank you for visiting. 

We appreciate the reminder. 

You can go now.

With love 

Rodger J Hamilton