History Will Remember

When I was a cancer patient, well-meaning people would try to fill the void of our shared awkwardness over my diagnosis by saying “Well, everything happens for a reason.” I would smile and nod and think to myself, “No. No, it doesn’t.” After a while, I started to say it out loud.

And so it is with this pandemic. I scroll right by—and then jab a finger to delete—those social media posts that purport to find reasons for the world coming to a dead stop, such as divine retribution for any number of perceived sins by the ungodly, or Mother Nature, aggrieved by too much plastic or by global warming, telling us to “go to our rooms.”

But the absence of a “reason” doesn’t mean that good, and beauty, and humor cannot be found in the worst of circumstances. (Evidence of this is so richly abundant that we need a new adjective for “abundant”.) Artists stream concerts and readings and stand-up monologues from their living rooms, people in “essential” businesses get up and go to work day after fretful day, a young neighbor offers to do the grocery shopping for someone deemed too fragile to step out into the threat.

April is National Poetry Month. Here’s a unique presentation of a poem, “History Will Remember,” by Donna Ashworth. You may have already read it as it has been making the rounds, but this rendition with motion graphics and score by Ivan Almaral is among the most moving reflections that arrived on my screen this week. Its final line is an affirmation of the very best hope, for what comes after.