Wondering Where the Lions Are

COVID 19 is the mainspring of the day. It’s hard not to make note of it this month.

Here, at the end of March, we’ve watched as the virus has risen from footnote to a driving force of the world in about a month’s time. Remarkable.

Even now, there is a struggle with the concept and implications. How bad is it? How is it worse than the flu? What will it do it the world economy? How will the world be changed?

Interestingly, so many people are confident of the precautions that they, themselves, are taking. – From those who are most cautions to those who are taking it lightly and the gradients in-between, most people seem self-assured that they’ve got it right and everyone else is a little off their rocker.

I can’t help but think of parallels between this situation and global warming. We as a species haven’t done a really great job of preparing for a pandemic. – Fortunately, in so many ways, COVID 19 isn’t nearly a bad as it could be. It could be a little more virulent or a little more deadly and then we’d really see the world crashing around us. Hopefully this will be a bit of a wake-up call.

But in this pandemic, I see a dark foreshadowing of global warming. Global warming is more destructive but subtlier. And the degree to which it is acknowledged, it is aided by a sense of creeping normality. The changes are slow and diffused and the cause and effect are less obvious from an average human scale and perspective.

Some are hopeful that the Coronavirus pandemic will be a reawakening to the value of expertise and the ‘elite‘. With our current leadership trends, I’m less optimistic these days. I hope I’m wrong.

The song, ‘Wondering Where the Lions Are‘, usually strikes me as hopeful. Today, it strikes me as a warning.

Sun’s up, mm-hmm, looks okay
The world survives into another day
And I’m thinking ’bout eternity
Some kinda ecstasy got a hold on me

I had another dream about lions at the door
They weren’t half as frightening as they were before
But I’m thinking ’bout eternity
Some kinda ecstasy got a hold on me

Walls, windows, trees, waves coming through
You be in me and I’ll be in you
Together in eternity
Some kinda ecstasy got a hold on me

Up among the firs where it smells so sweet
Or down in the valley where the river used to be
I got my mind on eternity
Some kinda ecstasy got a hold on me

And I’m wondering where the lions are (wondering where the lions are)
I’m wondering where the lions are (wondering where the lions are)
I’m wondering where the lions are, uh-huh…

Bruce Cockburn