As the world struggles to con
tain the mysterious contagion
that has sickened over millions around the world, a viral social media post makes you count your blessings with all those worst things ‘that could happen’ to you if you were born in a different frame of time.
Penned down by an anonymous author, the post introduces the readers to the brighter side of life where despite the world being a tinderbox of crisis, there are whole lot of good things that we have deliberately forgotten to be thankful of.
The post read: “It’s a mess out there and it’s hard to discern a real threat from panic and hysteria. But imagine you were born in 1900.
On your 14th birthday, World War I start, and ends on your 18th birthday, with 22 million people perished.”
The author then mentioned a number of pandemics and cataclysms that changed world dynamics with much more deadly consequences leaving generations in despair.
“Later in the year, a Spanish Flu epidemic runs until your 20th birthday and kills 50 million people.
On your 29th birthday, the Great Depression begins. Unemployment hits 25%, World GDP drops 27%. That runs until you are 33. The country nearly collapses with the world economy.
When you turn 39, World War II starts. On your 41st birthday, the U.S. is pulled into WWII. Between your 39th and 45th birthday, 75 million people perish in the war. At 50, the Korean War starts. Five million perish. At 55 the Vietnam War begins and lasts for 20 years. Four million people perished.
On your 62nd birthday the Cuban Missile Crisis becomes a tipping point in the Cold War. Life on our planet, as we know it, could have ended. Great leaders prevented that from happening.
When you turn 75, the Vietnam War ends.” On a concluding note, the writer impelled readers to contemplate that what we think of as worst is still better than lots of things that the world has already suffered through.
“Think of how everyone born in 1900 survived. As a kid in 1985, you probably didn’t think your 85-year-old grandparent understood how hard school was, or how mean that bully in your class was. Yet they survived through everything listed above.” The post metes out the message in the end: “Keep things in perspective. Be smart, help others, and we’ll get through this.”—AFP
