Lives lost to virus take immeasurable toll

“Not everything that matters can be measured,” a quote from Dr. Nirav Shah of the Maine CDC, by way of Albert Einstein.

What does that mean? It means, in this case, that much of what the coronavirus is doing to our state and around the country can be quantified. We can get all the numerical knowledge of the exponential growth of COVID-19. Necessary? Yes. Helpful? Yes.

But what we can’t truly measure are the lives lost beyond giving a number and projection of what’s yet to come. We can’t measure the personal pain suffered by a life lost, a family grieving, a person coping with the virus unless we know it from personal experience.

What we could measure would be the kindness, compassion, humanity, use of common sense, and responsibility if everyone would follow the guidelines set up to ensure each others’ health. We could measure it through the faces we would see everywhere with masks and with social distance.

I live in Canaan in Somerset County. The number of cases is rising. This is not a political. It’s about keeping us all healthy in the stores, on school grounds, in schools and on the sidewalks. It’s about the sacrifice of limiting family gatherings.

We will be able to measure how we all made a choice of keeping us virus free. Our humanity can be measured, and it’s the one that will cost us the least in the end. Wear a mask!

Maureen Delahanty

Canaan

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