The world has not ended, its just slowed down (a lot). COVID-19 has turned mother earth on her head and forced us to grapple with words like social-distancing, flatting the curve, 20 second hand-washing techniques and self-quarantine. It has also left us wondering who is more important, the CEO of a Fortune 500 company, or the kid who stocks toilet paper at the local grocery store.

Reading and watching reports on the impact of COVID-19, the world suddenly seems smaller. It doesn’t care what a person’s gender, race or ethnic background is. Whether you are rich, or poor, famous or just a regular resident of planet earth (although being rich and famous does seem to help you get tested quicker) COVID-19 is a real threat. We are not alone. What Americans are going through is also being felt by people across the globe.

I am reminded of another time when it seemed the planet, for a brief moment, came together to understand exactly how fragile our world is.

It was in December 1972 when Apollo 8 astronauts Bill Anders, Frank Borman and James Lovell rocketed to the moon. While Apollo 11 with Neil Armstrong (being the first human to step on lunar surface) would become more famous, a single photograph from the Apollo 8 mission captured what arguably became one of the most important images in history.

For the first time people saw earth not as a large powerful planet, but as a small defenseless little bright blue orb whizzing through space. It provided a vulnerable look at just how fragile we all were. Time and Life magazine highlighted it as an era-defining image.

People began looking around at how we were treating mother earth and many did not like what they saw. The Environmental Protection Agency, formed by President Nixon in 1970, really begin to make a difference  to enacting early air pollution control efforts after the photo became widespread. Did that iconic photo help? One cannot help but think it did.

While this pandemic continues to spread its terror, I wonder if the world will have another ah-hah moment and understand that, given all our differences, in the end we are all in this together. Will there be an iconic moment where we all shake our heads in agreement and say something needs to be done, or will we when things begin to calm down, conduct business as usual.

Memories, they say, can be short-lived. It seems that the human race could also fall to that peril.