Our Common Quest

I want to understand you, do the safest things, and be healthy for myself, loved ones, local and world communities.

Too small to be seen, you are an equal opportunity infector, stealthily hitching rides to hosts. You challenge us to use our imagination and abstract thinking, understand exponential growth. You hijack cells’ reproductive machinery, then make billions of yourself. Your drive to survive is a contrast to the most adaptive species on the planet, human beings.

Humble and elusive, you bring the world’s greatest armies to a grinding halt. Skies clear, waters turn blue. You’ve awakened people: neighbors talk to neighbors as they exercise outside after their long torpor. Others pass with a nod, acknowledging the Common Quest, stealthily plotting your demise to stop you from commandeering our way of life.

Humanity’s mission is to find a vaccine, then produce that in the billions. The human species has a multifaceted drive to survive which contrasts with your simple existence. You just want our DNA in a warm moist place in the throat & lungs.

You are the world’s only superpower now, but can be defeated with soap. I want to wash you off my hands & things I touch. I want to breathe clean, fresh air apart from others and to protect myself, loved ones, local & world communities by taking all precautions necessary, because we are all on a mission to adapt and survive. It is our Common Quest.

— Brian Cavanagh