April can be the cruelest month in America — but also the most inspiring one

“It was a bright cold day in April and the clocks were striking thirteen.” This is the first sentence in George Orwell’s dystopian novel “1984” — and for many of us April 2020 has been equally ominous and stark.

The reality is that while we traditionally associate April with the refreshing renewal that spring brings, April 2020 will forever be the April that saw coronavirus soar in our country and in our state; it will forever be the April that saw normal life erased.

Then again the mix of good and bad during the month of April is nothing new: throughout the ages it has earned a reputation for having wonderful events tempered by tragic ones.

April was when:

▪ The 1906 San Francisco earthquake took place.

▪ The mass shooting at Columbine High School was carried out.

▪ Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King Jr. were assassinated.

▪ The Titanic sank, taking the lives of more than 1,500 people.

▪ The Chernobyl plant exploded in northern Ukraine, causing the worst nuclear accident in history.

▪ The federal building in Oklahoma City was bombed by a domestic terrorist, killing 168 people.

Yet April was also when:

▪ George Washington was inaugurated as America’s first president.

▪ The Pony Express mail service was launched.

▪ The first modern Olympics took place in Athens, Greece.

▪ Paul Revere made his famed midnight ride.

▪ The Ford Motor Co. introduced its iconic Mustang model.

▪ The World Health Organization — which is now playing a central role in the global battle to address the pandemic — was formed.

▪ “The Great Gatsby” — one of America’s great novels — was published.

▪ Jackie Robinson made his debut for the Brooklyn Dodgers and broke Major League Baseball’s color barrier.

So while no one can debate the legendary poet T.S. Eliot’s famous declaration that April can be “the cruelest month,” we also don’t have to search very far to find its positive side as well.

Acts of goodwill

Just look at all the remarkable acts of courage this month that have been carried out by people ranging from health care professionals and first responders to average citizens and public figures.

Just look at the spirit of goodwill displayed by the corporations and organizations that have stepped up during the pandemic to do everything from making 3-D face shields to protect health care workers (NASCAR) to producing hand sanitizer for distribution (Anheuser-Busch).

In the midst of our precarious situation, April 2020 has given us a stage on which to perform good deeds.

We have no idea how long we will be immersed in our new coronavirus lifestyle.

We have no idea how long our uncertainty will last.

But I for one will hold on to these words by the British writer and historian Thomas Carlyle:

“Wet contentious April, like winter chilling the lap of May; but at length the season of summer does come.”

So let us eagerly await summer — both in the real and metaphorical sense.

Sherry Beasley is a longtime Columbia educator.