“The Wrong End of the Dog”

Sitting on the couch, searching my seed catalog

For the best seeds for my spring garden,

Hannah’s Great Dane, “Angus”, lay down

Beside me to sleep.

A new puppy, 14 weeks, 40lbs, with big feet.

He snuggled Dorothy, his head in her lap.

Suddenly, I caught a whiff of something,

A smell old and basic – “O Lord!”

The odor burned my nose!  It had an acrid,

Sulfur taste, highly pungent, reminiscent of

Something familiar: “Gas!”  “Flatus!”

Representing life’s most basic chemistry, ‘digestion!’

I began to fan furiously, waving my seed catalog

In front of my nose, trying to breathe…

The smell sank beside me and stuck to my skin!

Hannah laughed as I waved the catalog more furiously,

Trying hard to move the stagnant air.

Only when the A/C turned on was I saved from

A slow dying to breathe.

A metaphor, this pungent odor:

Like so much of my life these past two years (2020 and 2021).

I realize I am sitting on the wrong end of the dog!

Bill Wilson   12/31/2021

Reflecting back on the past two years is difficult.  The end of the year summary is bad!  Having never in all my 67 years experienced anything like these last two, I am simply grateful to be still alive and have my only daughter at home from Australia before another lock down on travel occurs.  She was there for 4 years in Sydney studying to become a vet.  Thank God, she is now finished and has come home!

I am not sure what else to say.  I am a practicing physician.  We just finished mostly with delta and now omnicron arrives.   What else can I say?  The next three months, combined with type A flu and whatever else arrives on these shores from somewhere else, or is home grown—there is a growing weariness and fatigue among all health care workers, and most of us are fully vaccinated.

It is likely that many of us in the human family will survive this new onslaught of ‘the virus.’  How much more of this can persons take?  This seems like a bad movie whose reel never ends, except this is not a movie.  Many are still dying, too many!!!  Why can’t we get ahead of this thing?  Why can’t we get this right?

I have taken to praying a lot more for myself and others.  What else do we have? 

We had a gathering at our home yesterday, family only, fully vaccinated only.  It was the only normal thing we have done in the past two years! And only once have we done it.  And we wondered if this was safe.  Had not Dr. Fauci said less than 25 with all vaccinated, family is a safe gathering, we would have called this one off as well.

We had been going back to church services, masked, of course.  Our church wears masks, many do not.  We are trying to avoid weddings and funerals.  But people die on a regular and irregular basis.  I know churches who have lost many to covid-19, yet they still go to worship.  I might have stayed home.

I think, what we are craving is some type of normalcy.  When we almost get it, omnicron snatches this away again.  Like ducks who can never land as the water never settles in the wind—where do we fly for safety?  Or will we finally drop exhausted and die?

This Covid virus is too much emotionally for most of us to manage.  Some go on and simply ignore it all, perhaps from fear or simply don’t care.  Some of us are too afraid or too lazy to read the news.  But who can stand to hear the news?  I get mine once daily on the internet, BBC News.  The rest is so tainted with politics I cannot listen.  How can we trust the news with so many angry voices?

One day, I am now taking one day at a time.

I do my job to be best of my ability.  Then I go home.

It seems the only safe place left to be! Thank God for our family and home! If we become sick or die, at least we can do this as a family, together!

We must assume now that all of us will eventually get Covid-19, of whatever type.  And some of us will get sicker than others.  Some of us will die from this horrible virus.  Eventually, we will find a way to beat it into submission.  Not go away, but like the flu virus, troubling us each year with different permutations, some worse than others.  Or perhaps someone will find a way to give immunity to many viruses with a one shot or series of three!

The human family is resilient!  We have fought the good fight before!  And we are still here.  Not all of us, but most of us.  We are still here!  Generations of us continue.

Within our genetic heritage is our hope and our salvation.  Even in the era of the Black Death, when 25 million people died from 1347 to 1351, Europe survived.  The feudal system of land management was overthrown, and the servants of the feudal lords were freed.  Fewer persons remained to work the land and being worth more to the landowners they began to share more wealth.

In the 1918-1919 Spanish Flu, it is estimated 500 million persons were infected around the world.  The number of deaths is estimated to be around 50 million.  The number of persons dying from the Spanish Flu in the United States was about 675,000.

Covid-19 cases in the United States, thus far are 54.9 million, with deaths currently around 824,000 based on statistical data (New York Times, last updated January 1, 2022).  Confirmed cases of Covid-19 in the world are 290,439,791 with 5,459,800 deaths as of today (January 2, 2022), this data taken from https://www.worldometers.info.

Are we on track for numbers dying from the Black Death, or the Spanish Flu?  No one but God knows!  Did the virus come out of a secret lab or from an animal eaten by unsuspecting humans in China?  We may never know.  But we do know it is happening among us now!  With God’s help, God’s grace and God’s mercy the human family will come through this as well!  As I Christian I am not as afraid of dying as I am of missing my grandchildren’s next birthdays about a year from now.  I have many reasons to live on another year.  How about you?

Let us pray:  O God our Savior, our Redeemer, and our Friend:  We as individuals and as the human family are being tested today in ways we have not been tested before, at least in this generation.  We acknowledge before You our frailties, our lack of wisdom, our inability to work together, our inability to help one another, our lack of faith and good will, even in times of crisis which affect all of us together and separately.  Forgive us, Lord Jesus.  Help us to remember that You alone are Lord and Ruler of the universe; You are our God!  Give us today what we do not have, help us to find what we do not know how to find or even where to seek.  Bring clarity and hope to us all with the sure and certain hope of your holy word of your gospel, the word of God, the word from God, pointing us to the Word of God made Flesh among us!

When we are lost in despair, find us and bring us hope.  When we are besides ourselves with grief, come to us with your comforting care.  When we have lost our faith, give us of your faith and renew our faith within us.  When we don’t know what to do or where to go, show us the way by leading us together there as we follow you.  When we no longer know how to love another, love us still and remind us of your enduring love for us all! 

We are your children, made in your image.  You are the Light to our spirits.  You are the power to overcome our darkness, to bring new light into day, and create new worlds for us when nothing remains of the old world.  When familiarity is taken from us, recreate within us and around us a new reality, a new beginning.  Let life swallow death once more!

For we pray this prayer in the strong name of the One who chased death away, rose from the dead and entered into the eternal life of God, sitting at the right hand of God most High, as Jesus Christ, our Lord and our God!  You are the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning of the creation of God and the certain end!  Behold the old has passed away; the new has come!  For this new beginning, give us new hope in life now and in eternity.  For this, we give you our abundant thanks!  Glory!  Glory!  Glory and praise to the mighty name of Jesus Christ our Lord, our Redeemer, and our Friend!  Only You have conquered death and sin for us all!

“Amen and Amen!  We praise you and give you our gracious thanks, Jesus Christ our Lord and our Redeemer, and our soon coming King!”

“Amen!”

Let all the people of God say, “Amen!” “We praise you, O Lord Jesus Christ!”

Bill Wilson