I’ve returned to Shelley’s ode time and time again, repeating the words and reprinting them so many times one would think I might know them by heart. I’m as forgetful of my lessons as any other man is of their own though. It’s easy to get caught up in the current and forget everything that history has taught us. The past will reach up every so often though and remind us. It’s curious how it often seems to happen when we most need it. Perhaps we always need it more desperately than we might imagine.

“I met a traveller from an antique land,
Who said—“Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. . . . Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed;
And on the pedestal, these words appear:
My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.”

There were 3.5 million brand spanking new unemployment claims at the end of the first week of the national pause. That’s in addition to those already filed, and those yet to come. A large number of people I know, including co-workers, will be signing on this week. The first new e-mail in my inbox yesterday was from the Chairman of our company and it spoke of sacrifices that would need to be made from the top level down to the bottom. It’s easy to read between the lines with those, especially for those like myself who’ve weathered a few upheavals in the past. I knew that rounds of phone calls had already been planned. I knew there was a list of names. I crossed my fingers and recited the Serenity Prayer and continued with my work duties. I’ve always been told not to say prayers asking for things for myself but I secretly prayed that my name wasn’t on the list. It wasn’t on this one and for that I am grateful. It’s on me now though to make sure the sacrifices of others weren’t for nothing. It’s on me to confirm that I deserve the outcome I was granted.

Okay. I’m down for that.

I guess I’m still speaking for all the uncertainty. The undertow is always there. There are times that the current is stronger than others but the rules are the same. Don’t swim against the current. Let it take you out as far as necessary that the pull is lessened. Then swim across it, and come back to shore.

There was nobody on that list yesterday that was doing any differently than that. Difficult choices had to be made. I said a prayer for the people on the list and another for the people that made the list. It’s terrible for them as well. It wasn’t callous. It wasn’t personal. The hurt is personal for both groups.

There’s a bit of Ozymandias in each of us, isn’t there? Each of us has their own private empire. Each empire ends the same. Stay humble. Stay human.

Selah.

I did consider framing this in broader terms with some sort of socio-political statement. That’s too easy though. The entirely of human history is fallen empires. This people used to be great. They now only exist in books and imagination. Nobody needs another history lesson. There are plenty already. Stay mindful.