"Experience is, after all, a slow road to knowledge..."

We are starting to see the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel!  At least in the United States, the COVID-19 numbers are definitely on the decline.  It's been a long and difficult 15 months (going back to when the World Health Organization officially declared the worldwide pandemic in March) for all of us.  It is tempting to talk about a "return to normal," but I think it is fair to say that we will never go back to the way things were before COVID-19.  Whatever you wish to call this new state, I do believe that we can and should reflect on the events of the past 15 months and learn as much as we can about how society dealt with all of the things that occurred (clearly we dealt with more than just a worldwide pandemic).

I have always found it incredibly helpful to learn from the past experiences of others.  No one currently alive has ever experienced what it's like to survive through a worldwide pandemic like COVID-19.  As the author and historian, Willie Lee Rose said, "Experience is, after all, a slow road to knowledge."  Eleanor Roosevelt similarly stated, "Learn from the mistakes of others.  You can't live long enough to make them all yourself."  For these reasons and more, I've been trying to learn what I can by reading about the societal changes that occurred during and following some of history's most famous pandemics, such as the infamous Black Death (worldwide plague from 1346-1353), the Great Plague of London (1665-1666), or the 1918 Influenza Pandemic.

I've also been reading more about the history of how we got to be where we are today as a society.  There are still a lot of books on my nightstand to read, but I was particularly impressed by a book by Colin Woodard called American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America.  Woodard suggests that we should view the history of the United States through a different lens altogether, proposing that America is really a conglomeration of eleven different regional cultures and nation-states.  He further contends that there are two major "alliances" of nation-states that are commonly opposed to each other - a northern alliance, consisting of the nation-states of Yankeedom, the New Netherlands and the Left Coast and a southern alliance, consisting of the nation-states of the Deep South, Greater Appalachia, and the Tidewater.  The remaining nation-states (Midlands, New France, El Norte, and the Far West) will generally align with one or the other of the two major alliances, depending upon the political issue at hand.  It's a different way to examine our history for sure, but I found the book to be quite interesting.

I was particularly interested in statement that Woodard made in the epilogue of his book.  I thought it was actually quite profound.  He is discussing his thoughts on how the different nation-states will continue to influence the political direction of the United States as a whole, stating, "Another outside possibility is that, faced with a major crisis, the federation's leaders will betray their oath to uphold the U.S. Constitution, the primary adhesive holding the union together.  In the midst of, say, a deadly pandemic outbreak [emphasis added by me] or the destruction of several cities by terrorists, a fearful public might condone the suspension of civil rights, the dissolution of Congress, or the incarceration of Supreme Court justices.  One can easily imagine circumstances in which some nations are happy with the new order and others deeply opposed to it."  Woodard wrote these words in 2012, but they seem deeply prophetic now, especially in light of what happened on January 6, 2021.  

As we reflect on the events of the past year and a half, there is no question that our society has fundamentally changed.  There are likely to be more difficult days ahead, even as we slowly reset back to our new baseline.  As the ancient Roman Stoic philosopher, Lucius Annaeus Seneca (usually known as simply "Seneca"), said "A gem cannot be polished without friction, nor a man perfected without trials."  I hope that we will emerge better for the trials that we have all been through during all of calendar year 2020 and most of 2021.  

I feel as though we have reached a fork in the road, and our future as a country will depend greatly on which road that we take.  I hope that the path we take will lead to real progress forward, and that we will emerge as a society that honors and respects our individual differences.  As we contemplate where we are as a country, as well as where we need to go, there are likely to be important lessons in the experiences of the past - particularly how society emerged from pandemics throughout history.  History - the experience of others - can teach us and lead us the way.