journal 24

When reading through journal 22 done by peers in my own class, I found some very interesting points that were brought up. Obviously the 1918 flu pandemic was much different from the COVID-19 pandemic we’re experiencing right now. Technology was a lot different, the way people lived has been changed drastically, and many people had different values and lives. This doesn’t mean the effect of it was much different because I feel as though I’d be lying if I stated that. This is a very stressful and grueling time to live through and it is crazy how much it has an effect on everyone, mentally and physically. One of my peers, Alice, wrote about her opinion on what she thought the idea behind killing the cat was. Many of us questioned why this women’s family was killing their pets and leaving the dead body outside, but we didn’t take into account that this could be a part of their ritual or religion. Maybe their goal was to keep the virus out of their house to keep the family members safe and that allowing the flies to migrate towards the dead cat was getting the virus to move outside instead of staying to linger. It is crazy how many different thoughts came about this one idea of killing a cat, but Alice has a very unique approach when finding the meaning behind these actions. Another one of my peers, Courtney, goes on and talks about how some people have to sacrifice their lives in order to help others. This one hit close to home, because I have people in my family who are first responders, and every day they put their lives on the line to fight for others. It isn’t every day where people realize how much this not only effects the people doing this job but also their families waiting at home. I think this was a very open-minded outlook and I appreciated it the minute I read it. Overall, everyone is being affected by these pandemics, and back then things were done a lot differently and I’m sure many of us still have many questions remaining, but the fact of the matter is that we need to look on the bright side and see how far we’ve developed from the first pandemic to now.