Every once in a while it’s prudent to look back and see how far we’ve come. As I was going through some of the early things written after COVID roped and wrangled us here in Wyoming I want you to read it again and remember just how far we’ve come.
“News of the coronavirus has been dark at best and with all the adverse reporting coming in, it was refreshing this week to be able to add encouraging sentiments from the people that were interviewed all over the county.
From the ones who have lost jobs to the ones who are scrambling to create financial opportunities for the small-business owners, there is an immutable spirit that has risen to the surface. A spirit of hope. A word of encouragement. Living faith that has caused everyone in our communities to pull together and do something to help somebody.
The school has provided free lunches. The economic development corporation has worked feverishly on a plan to provide short term monies to help in the crunch. People that have been laid off and don’t have two nickels to rub together are offering words of encouragement and volunteer service to the elderly.
A common thread that has illuminated through each story of hardship. From each tale of the battle. In every decimated corner of our community. It is the gratefulness to be a part of a small community.
A community where you know your neighbors and everything each one is going through. A place where we celebrate together in the abundance of good times and cry with one another in the darkened shadows of pandemic.
Would this be a weekend storm, people would have banded together to mop up and clean up, but in the current state of affairs, the uncertainty and the path that has never been navigated has people concerned and fear wants to control every heart.
It wears on the human spirit like nothing we’ve ever seen before. Every news outlet spews forth more statistics and coverage of the coronavirus has put all other news on a back burner. Nobody knows when it will end. We wake up in the morning and it’s there. We place our heads on the pillow at night and it’s still screaming loudly at the top of its lungs to be afraid.
We all are hoping that it will end soon so things can get back to normal. But will it ever be normal again. Perhaps a new normal. And as we watch this disease march out as quickly as it came in, we’ve got to ask ourselves what we learned. What new weaponry have we developed so that if it comes back again, will we be ready?
And when we look back on it, what will be the reflection of the world? What will they say about the way we handled it? What will history record as to how we weathered the storm?
I would hope that they would record us. Here in Platte County that never gave up hope. Never got too tired to help an elderly person to the grocery store. Never gave into the things that would anesthetize our flesh. Never wanted to get out.
We will be known as a community that rolled up its sleeves, took courage against the fear that so easily boasted itself against us, and marched on to the heartbeat of a small-town. We never gave up.
Let’s hope THAT is what they say and what they publish in a county that so deserves the praise and encouragement right now. Bravo, Platte County. Bravo.”
