Now, lets take a little trip in the WABAC machine.

lets go to June 28th, 1956

Lets go to Erick Oklahoma.

There we meet a man who owns a "filling station" and a small 12 room hotel.
This man is middle aged.
He lived through the great depression, fought in WWII and through guts and guile, manged to get his hands on this lovely filling station.

As it was on a lonely stretch of route 66, it was popular with everyone "Motoring west". In a few years, he managed to make and save enough money to build a small "motel", which also became successful.

Lots of struggle, lots of strife but after all is said and done, life is good. Our man takes a moment to note the sun as it goes down on the horizon and thanks the lord for his good fortune.

He awakes before dawn the next day, and reads the newspaper at breakfast. On the front, is one headline

"Eisenhower signs Federal Highway Act"

He goes on reading, taking some note but not too much note. The word "Interstate" doesnt really ring out to him in 1956.

We, of the future, know that this mans whole life has just been turned upside down but he doesnt know it yet. He is not aware that the new "interstate" will largely bypass his town and with it, his hard earned lifes investment.

Were he to sell his filling station and hotel now in June of 1956, he would still receive a good price but whats the rush? And besides, people will still use good old route 66, wont they?

But sell or not sell, this mans whole life has been turned upside down.

If he is lucky and smart, he works hard to convert his earnings into another "Filling station" close to the new interstate. He sees the future and plans for its arrival. He accepts the new reality and operates in it, he doesnt deny it.

if he is unlucky, he clings to the certainty of the past. He decides its better to "stand pat", to stay with what he has worked so hard to build.

We return to the present, and we find the remains of the filling station and hotel in Erick, now long since abandoned. We dont know the fate of our man or his family but we see the ruin of his work and their dreams.

I think about this situation now and then in 2020. We were all merrily going on about our lives in 2019 when word arrived of a virus in some place called "Wuhan". None of us knew what it meant, or what would happen or how it would happen, in point of fact, its still happening.

As I have said, I like reading history, I dont like living it and yet here we are. This right here, as it happens is history. We got away from it for awhile but here it is again to bite us in the ass.

All of us are, much like our man in Erik Oklahoma in 1956, reading the days news and trying to decide which direction to go, or even to go at all.

My advice, for those that will take it is that each of us needs come to grips with the reality of the fact that the world has changed and that in many ways, we are also changing.

There is no going back to "the world that was".,

The interstate has passed us by and we need to operate with that fact in mind or we will end up as derelict as that old filling station in Erik Oklahoma..

Keep your spirits up. Things will get better and someday we will all live to see the younger generations deny that any of this ever happened.