One Million... And counting.

A very sad comparison:

May 12 marked the one millionth recorded American death from Covid-19. We will probably forevermore mark the accuracy of that number and date, but nevertheless, it will stand as an official anti-milestone.

One million... That's almost too big a number. Even if you live in a city or county of 1 million plus, it doesn't feel that way. At most, you observe hundreds of thousands at a time. If you have ten thousand dollars in your bank account, it would be a million pennies. Who would ask, "Could I get that in small coins, please?" Most of us simply have no concept of a million anything, other than a number consisting of a One followed by six zeros. 

For perspective, if you take the top 10 largest NCAA football stadiums and fill them to reported capacity, you would have just over 1,010,000 people. 

Ten stadiums' worth of people. That is how many have died in our country. Could you imagine those stadiums' sitting empty on a Saturday in October? What if each empty seat had a name - not just for season ticket holders, but for holders and livers of life. 

One million mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers; one million mostly faceless names, or worse, patient numbers, nameless persons who only added to a terrible statistic. 

I cannot fathom a million, but I can fathom the few I knew, and the funerals I conducted, and the families who remain, remember, and relive those terrible days. 

It's been called a battle, a war, a fight against an enemy, and other military-esque images. There is the Vietnam Wall, the WW2 monument, the Korean War statue, the Goliad monument and Alamo centotaph, and dozens and dozens of Civil War and Revolutionary War battlegrounds, all which stand to remember those who died. 

With apologies to A. Lincoln, whose famous speech marked another terrible tally of death in a Pennsylvania field, what could we possibly build to dedicate, consecrate, hallow, remember and represent one million Americans dead, let alone the millions worldwide?

Sadly, the answer is probably nothing. The cost will be too great, they'll say. Which will be ironic, for the cost in human life was already too great. 

Let's build a new football stadium instead.