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The Strange Times We Live In
On May 8, 1600 painter and diplomat Peter Paul Rubens received his letters so that he could travel. Letters were required from the town hall in order to verify that the bearers were in good standing in the community and had a clean bill of health. It let others know that they had no plague or contagious disease. It was not odd to get such letters before traveling. It was a normal part of life at that time. Understanding this helps us to see that disease and plague have affected the world for a long time and impacted the everyday life of people. Our individualism says that our experiences are unique to us, but history says otherwise. Despite what has happened in the past, however, what is happening today is new to us and places us in strange times.
I remember in high school when a new disease came on the scene. We didn’t have internet back then so unless you watched the nightly news and read the paper, which I didn’t do back then, you didn’t know everything. We knew enough to know it was a killer. At first it was a sex disease, but then they weren’t sure and we thought we might get it if we kissed someone. Teachers told me that I could get a STD by sitting on dirty toilets and so for a long time I wondered if I could get AIDS the same way. I am still afraid to sit on a toilet at a gas station for fear of what I might pick up. It was a strange time, but not a time like this. Our entire lives…
