Above all else

So here we are again, weeks into Phase 2 (Heightened Alert). The past 1.5 years living amidst the Covid-19 pandemic have been... interesting. I asked my parents if the pandemic was the biggest world/national event in their lives, and both unhesitatingly agreed - bigger than independence in 1965 (which I was somewhat surprised by - according to my dad, everybody then was just struggling to survive and get a job, so the idea of political independence was almost peripheral to many people), and bigger than the race riots of 1969 (which was the next biggest thing according to my mom). I wasn't alive in those days, so to me, the 2nd biggest event after the current pandemic was the September 11 terrorist attacks, not only because of the heightened security measures that are now standard in airports and buildings, but because the disquieting sense of potential physical danger became something that's ingrained in our collective consciousness ever since. The main reason why I think the c