Requiem for a Nunn. Where's he going with this? Requiem for a nun is a novel by William Faulkner.

Not a big hit. Less well regarded than Sanctuary, the Faulkner novel it's a sequel to.

But Requiem for Nun is famous for one line. The past is never dead. It's not even past.

1950 that was published. And it's still true.

Events that happened are still happening. The North didn't punish the Confederacy much

for their traitorous actions and we're still dealing with that. It's not the past.

Trickle-down economics still with us. And then there's COVID.

COVID is a bomb that is still going off. Yes, vaccines came out, even though not everyone took them,

and that's still not the past. We're dealing with that. Over a million Americans died. There's no talk of a monument

or national memorial or observation or processing in any way. No, we plow on as if it's the past,

as if there is such a thing as the past and we carry it with us. COVID is still here.

As a disease, yeah.

As trauma of lives upended and suspended, family and friends lost, it's still here.

As we experience the sudden slamming on the brakes to our lives and our society and all

the isolation that followed that. That's still here with us. The reality that we went through

that is still here. There was the anxiety about the future, not knowing how bad it would get,

how long it would last, if someone close to you

would die, if you would die. We went through that. It messed us up. It didn't get tied up and

disposed of. It's still here. Talk to any young person, I'll tell you. Then there's long COVID.

The COVID that did not go away after one or two weeks.

Usually involves extreme fatigue, brain fog, rapid heart rate, pain.

We went through the discovery of what long COVID is. We are still dealing with the unknowns

...