The first case of Spanish flu was reported on this date in 1918.
Prof. Wiki steps up to the lectern:
Mrmmphh *spack*! (Clears throat, spits) ... "The pandemic lasted from approximately March 1918 to June 1920, spreading even to the Arctic and remote Pacific islands. It is estimated that anywhere from 50 to 100 million people were killed worldwide which is from three to seven times the casualties of the First World War (15 million), making it the deadliest natural disaster in human history. An estimated 50 million people, about three percent of the world's population (approximately 1.6 billion at the time), died of the disease."
Thank you, Professor, you may step down. Now go away.
We take to task the professor's use of the term "natural disaster." He falsely differentiates the 15 million deaths in WWI to those 50 million caused by Spanish flu as -- or so we infer -- unnatural deaths. He emphasizes again the term "natural disaster" to put a distance between this and, we assume, so-called "manmade" disasters, like wars.
What we think he is saying is that death is not natural unless it is caused by something other than the destructive works of man. This kind of thinking is along the same lines as saying tornadoes are the works of a wrathful G-d. In other words, it is wrong.
Death by war is as natural as any other. Death by suicide is natural. Death by blunt trauma from a falling piano is natural. Falling by into the gorge and dying is natural. NASCAR deaths are natural.
There is no such thing as an unnatural death. We can understand the error Prof. Wiki makes here: he is speaking of deaths cause by "nature" -- deaths that are out of our control as we live on a hostile planet.
We always have the option of not driving while drunk, of not getting into wars in the first place, of not murdering each other -- or so this line of reasoning would follow.
Again we return to that greatest of Big Band Leaders, Arty Schopenhauer, to close out the logic we are pursuing here:
"A man can do what he wants, but not want what he wants."
Think about it. This pithy axiom explains both Spanish Flu, AIDS, H1N1, luxury shopping, as well as war and death in general, which is always natural, but rarely welcome.
And that's natural too: to balk at death, whether you stop for it, or it kindly stops for you.
It's in our natures to fight for life, to breathe as long as we can, despite what a bomb, bullet, earthquake or microbe says to the contrary.
Play some Traveling Wilburys today. We recommend "End of the Line." Or Todd Rundgren's "For the Want of a Nail" or "Bang on The Drum."
Spring is almost here and there's nothing we can do to stop it.
C. Penbroke Handy
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