美国国家公共电台 NPR--As the U.S. COVID death toll nears a million, why that number is hard to fathom

As the U.S. COVID death toll¹ nears a million, why that number is hard to fathom²

Transcript³

NPR's Rachel Martin speaks with philosopher Eric Boynton about empathy and community grief as the U.S. nears a landmark⁴ death toll: one million people dying from COVID-19.

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

Imagine an earthquake so big it destroys buildings and lives.

ERIC BOYNTON: A seismic⁵ event that is so large that it overwhelms the ability to take stock of what has just happened.

MARTIN: It is so strong that the seismograph, the very instrument used to process the scale of the earthquake, has been destroyed. This is how philosopher Eric Boynton describes our current moment in the pandemic. In this case, the earthquake is COVID-19. And when public health officials express disbelief about every new milestone⁶, they are pointing to the broken seismograph.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: I mean, it's absolutely staggering. It's unreal.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: It's been stunning⁷ to me that we have had as much death as we've had.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #3: I feel like my brain hasn't even caught up with some of the reality.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #4: It just boggles the mind, as if...

MARTIN: Boynton has written extensively about mass death and how we mark great loss. He's the dean of Beloit College in Wisconsin. And he, himself, is trying to make sense of nearly a million lives lost.

BOYNTON: It's a number that washes over you, and then it dissipates. There's no container. There's no parameters⁸ that allow you to think about that number of deaths in a concrete, discernible way.

MARTIN: We first reached out to you in 2020 when the U.S. was approaching 100,000 deaths from COVID. And it felt awful then. And all the news stories reflected that, you know, all the obits of people who were lost and big headlines...

(SOUNDBITE OF CNN BROADCAST)

WOLF BLITZER: That is 100,000 men, women, children, mothers, fathers.

MARTIN: ...And everyone saying, I can't believe that we're here. And then it was the same thing.

(SOUNDBITE OF ABC NEWS BROADCAST)

ZOHREEN SHAH: Nearly 500,000 COVID deaths in America.

MARTIN: Every milestone, the reaction, the language was the same. I mean, are we not able to process the changing scale of loss in real time?

BOYNTON: I think that's probably true. I think, every time, we find ourselves surprised by such a number, such a threshold. I think this is, at bottom, a deeply human problem, this one that the pandemic has brought to the fore⁹ because it seems to be a long burn. Over time, it continues to exert its pressure. And yet, we find ways to live, more or less, in normal ways in the midst of it, even in this face of loss and absence that is all around us.

MARTIN: The World Health Organization says nearly 15 million people around the world have died from COVID directly or indirectly¹⁰. So we're dealing¹¹ with this 1 million loss here in the U.S. The larger number suggest that many more of us have been affected¹² by grief associated with COVID, right? So if you, yourself, are sitting in your own individual grief, does that make you more or less capable to absorb the larger tragedy?

BOYNTON: Yeah. There's something about allowing yourself to open up to this grief and allowing it to do its work, to somehow hold lightly to the pieces so we don't dissipate altogether, but allow those fissures¹³ and cracks to let in certain kinds of light that otherwise would be closed off.

MARTIN: I guess I'm still struggling with the idea that we're supposed to endure our own grief of the loss of a mother or a partner or a child and also be very, very sad about everyone else who has died. That is really difficult.

BOYNTON: Yeah. And, yeah, that's something that needs to be taken stock of. I have experienced that in relationships with my own friends, for whom the grief is so deep and abiding¹⁴ that it's difficult to take stock. It might even be difficult to have a conversation we're having right now given the kind of imposition that this pandemic has had on their lives. And I think this is part of the space we find ourselves in right now, that something has been sprung into the air and it hasn't yet landed. And we haven't yet understood what's happened.

MARTIN: What do you do with misinformation in a situation like this? I mean, right now, some people falsely believe that the pandemic is exaggerated because of misinformation or political or social divides. How do you process collective grief when not everyone agrees on the scale?

BOYNTON: I would say, the desire to abide¹⁵ in misinformation, it may be a completely sane¹⁶ response. To believe in misinformation is a mechanism¹⁷ by which to take stock, by not taking stock of what's happening. What it is that you're engaging in is the flip¹⁸ side of the same coin of those who want to put flags out on the mall in D.C. Those two are intimately related as a response to that which you are having difficulty wrapping your heads around.

MARTIN: When you are faced with a loss as big as a million Americans have now died of COVID, can our hearts and minds keep expanding to meet the scale of loss? Or must we, for self-preservation, shut down at some point?

BOYNTON: Yes, you have to shut down at some point. All of this is too much. And, in fact, the pandemic is not too much, the world is too much. How is it that I'm living in community with other people who are experiencing this pandemic in ways that I don't fully¹⁹ comprehend, nor can I ever, that allows me to understand my own grief in different ways? Because I'm set within a community of those who are also suffering. And so it may not be a capacity of asking me, the individual, to empathize with someone else's suffering, but it's a recognition that my own suffering is that which links me to others. I may not even trust myself or imagine that I know what it is that you're experiencing. And far be it for me to impose upon you what it is I imagine. But it doesn't mean that I'm not constantly in relationship to that person because of the suffering that's all around us.

MARTIN: Eric Boynton, provost and dean of Beloit College in Wisconsin. Thank you so much for this conversation.

BOYNTON: Well, thank you, Rachel. I sure appreciate your time.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

1 toll   

n.过路(桥)费；损失，伤亡人数；v.敲(钟)

参考例句：

• The hailstone took a heavy toll of the crops in our village last night.昨晚那场冰雹损坏了我们村的庄稼。
• The war took a heavy toll of human life.这次战争夺去了许多人的生命。

2 fathom   

v.领悟，彻底了解

参考例句：

• I really couldn't fathom what he was talking about.我真搞不懂他在说些什么。
• What these people hoped to achieve is hard to fathom.这些人希望实现些什么目标难以揣测。

3 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

4 landmark   

n.陆标，划时代的事，地界标

参考例句：

• The Russian Revolution represents a landmark in world history.俄国革命是世界历史上的一个里程碑。
• The tower was once a landmark for ships.这座塔曾是船只的陆标。

5 seismic   

a.地震的，地震强度的

参考例句：

• Earthquakes produce two types of seismic waves.地震产生两种地震波。
• The latest seismic activity was also felt in northern Kenya.肯尼亚北部也感觉到了最近的地震活动。

6 milestone   

n.里程碑；划时代的事件

参考例句：

• The film proved to be a milestone in the history of cinema.事实证明这部影片是电影史上的一个里程碑。
• I think this is a very important milestone in the relations between our two countries.我认为这是我们两国关系中一个十分重要的里程碑。

7 stunning   

adj.极好的；使人晕倒的

参考例句：

• His plays are distinguished only by their stunning mediocrity.他的戏剧与众不同之处就是平凡得出奇。
• The finished effect was absolutely stunning.完工后的效果非常美。

8 parameters   

因素，特征； 界限； （限定性的）因素( parameter的名词复数 )； 参量； 参项； 决定因素

参考例句：

• We have to work within the parameters of time. 我们的工作受时间所限。
• See parameters.cpp for a compilable example. This is part of the Spirit distribution. 可编译例子见parameters.cpp.这是Spirit分发包的组成部分。

9 fore   

adv.在前面；adj.先前的；在前部的；n.前部

参考例句：

• Your seat is in the fore part of the aircraft.你的座位在飞机的前部。
• I have the gift of fore knowledge.我能够未卜先知。

10 indirectly   

adv.间接地，不直接了当地

参考例句：

• I heard the news indirectly.这消息我是间接听来的。
• They were approached indirectly through an intermediary.通过一位中间人，他们进行了间接接触。

11 dealing   

n.经商方法，待人态度

参考例句：

• This store has an excellent reputation for fair dealing.该商店因买卖公道而享有极高的声誉。
• His fair dealing earned our confidence.他的诚实的行为获得我们的信任。

12 affected   

adj.不自然的，假装的

参考例句：

• She showed an affected interest in our subject.她假装对我们的课题感到兴趣。
• His manners are affected.他的态度不自然。

13 fissures   

n.狭长裂缝或裂隙( fissure的名词复数 )；裂伤；分歧；分裂v.裂开( fissure的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• Rising molten rock flows out on the ocean floor and caps the fissures, trapping the water. 上升熔岩流到海底并堵住了裂隙，结果把海水封在里面。 来自辞典例句
• The French have held two colloquia and an international symposium on rock fissures. 法国已经开了两次岩石裂缝方面的报告会和一个国际会议。 来自辞典例句

14 abiding   

adj.永久的，持久的，不变的

参考例句：

• He had an abiding love of the English countryside.他永远热爱英国的乡村。
• He has a genuine and abiding love of the craft.他对这门手艺有着真挚持久的热爱。

15 abide   

vi.遵守；坚持；vt.忍受

参考例句：

• You must abide by the results of your mistakes.你必须承担你的错误所造成的后果。
• If you join the club,you have to abide by its rules.如果你参加俱乐部，你就得遵守它的规章。

16 sane   

adj.心智健全的，神志清醒的，明智的，稳健的

参考例句：

• He was sane at the time of the murder.在凶杀案发生时他的神志是清醒的。
• He is a very sane person.他是一个很有头脑的人。

17 mechanism   

n.机械装置；机构，结构

参考例句：

• The bones and muscles are parts of the mechanism of the body.骨骼和肌肉是人体的组成部件。
• The mechanism of the machine is very complicated.这台机器的结构是非常复杂的。

18 flip   

vt.快速翻动；轻抛；轻拍；n.轻抛；adj.轻浮的

参考例句：

• I had a quick flip through the book and it looked very interesting.我很快翻阅了一下那本书，看来似乎很有趣。
• Let's flip a coin to see who pays the bill.咱们来抛硬币决定谁付钱。

19 fully   

adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地

参考例句：

• The doctor asked me to breathe in,then to breathe out fully.医生让我先吸气，然后全部呼出。
• They soon became fully integrated into the local community.他们很快就完全融入了当地人的圈子。