By Flattening The Curve We Are Flattening The World

The solution to halting the pandemic isn’t to wreck civilization

I wish it need not have happened in my time,” said Frodo. “So do I,” said Gandalf, “and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”

— R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring

The neurosurgeon swept into the room where my wife had been waiting for twelve tension-filled hours.

“I have good news and bad news,” he announced.

“The good news is that I was able to remove most of his brain tumor.”

My wife sagged with relief. “What’s the bad news?” she asked.

“The bad news,” he said, “is that your husband died on the operating table.”

I’m not actually writing to you from beyond the grave. In truth, that neurosurgeon had only good news for my wife that March evening in Toronto.

The malignant growth that upended my life had shoved aside my brainstem and thrust its malignant tentacles deep into my brain. But it stood no chance…