As we've been remembering 9/11, I've been thinking how small that seems now. I mean, sure, airplanes full of people flew into buildings full of people and that was sure a spectacle, but barely 3,000 died. That doesn't seem like such a big deal anymore. That many died of COVID just over the weekend. There will be nearly 700,000 dead by Christmas and a million by next Easter. I'm sure we'll stop counting eventually. It just won't make any sense after a while. What would be the point? Even more embarrassment?

The piles of death will be due to our own selfish stupidity, so there will be no memorials. The presidents won't be laying a wreath. We won't etch millions of names into granite. All that would be preposterous. Plus, there's no date certain when it began or when it will end. It will just be a big stain over years and years.

It's sorta been my belief that the reason we learned nothing from the Spanish flu is that people collectively forgot. They turned the page, hoping that would never happen again. But then it did.