By nature, I tend to be an optimist. I assume good faith and expect to be treated decently by others. I arise most mornings anticipating a good day.

These days, however, accentuated by the pandemic but extending well back prior to the virus, that optimism is precarious. I might get out of bed with an upbeat step, but that mood may soon shift with the news of the day and the hyperbolic, race-to-your-corners social media reaction.

We are well aware of the statistics and the physical toll taken by COVID-19. With roughly 4% of the global population, our country accounts for over 26 percent of cases and 23 percent of deaths across the world.

Is this the point of reference when Americans shout, “We’re number one?” Is this the new definition of American exceptionalism?

Those shameful statistics speak for themselves. The shame is magnified by the fact that we had months of notice and preparation time not available to most of Asia and Europe. Months completely squandered.

Decades from now, this episode will be referenced by scholars under the heading, “Governance matters.” Don’t be fooled by the newly-reinstituted White House coronavirus press briefings. The impetus for those came from pollsters and handlers, not from serious-minded, non-political, public health professionals. They are just another afternoon piece of a reality-show presidency staring at imminent cancellation.

Not only does governance matter, but leadership does as well. America is paying a deeply sad and heavy price for its absence. Our president has focused on poll numbers and the stock ticker – every metric except the epidemiological curve.

The Trump administration’s response to this crisis has evolved from utter incompetence to stark indifference.

Given what the country is living through, what leader, seriously or whimsically (and discount the whimsy), argues against additional testing? What leader fans the flames of resistance to common-sense public health advisories and proven protocols?

America is growing ever more aware of the answer to those questions. It is the same putative leader who ignored the power of example and disdained a mask while his citizenry, including those in his circle, got sick. The same leader who early on threw up his hands and gave up on any coordinated, comprehensive, national response in favor of a Darwinian definition of federalism telling all 50 states that they were on their own.

The failings of presidential leadership are manifest. History will render its harsh verdict, but voters will have their say far sooner.

But to simply make this about leadership, no matter how tempting, is too easy. Any honest accounting of where we are at cannot be just about “him” or “them”; it also must deal with “me” and “us.”

Americans of generations past have done hard, difficult things over long, sustained periods. Examples abound. Think of exploring and settling the west; enduring the Great Depression; fighting the all-hands-on-deck, existential struggle of World War II; even surviving the influenza plague of more than a century ago before the age of television much less Netflix.

These days, I often question whether we are capable of either half of that equation – overcoming the tough challenge or the long slog it often entails.

As a nation of abundance, have we gone soft? As an economy focused on quarterly earnings, can we make it through prolonged hardship? As a culture that prizes immediacy, can we be patient and defer gratification until there is widespread immunity either of the herd or vaccine kind?

In many ways, I recognize my good fortune. I can hole up in the beautiful mountains where social distancing comes easier. I have relative economic security and the wolf is not knocking. What I have to contribute can be done with a laptop and phone. My kids are grown and I am not faced with the impossible pandemic balance of job, child care and uncertain schooling.

But whatever our circumstance, we are being tested. For many, COVID may be the defining test of our life. We rarely pick the moment of our greatest challenge. Most often, the moment picks us.

This particular moment requires more than a good number of us have exhibited so far. It requires us to wear masks in many settings, no matter how awkward or uncomfortable. It beckons 20-somethings to forego their social drive. It calls all of us to hunker down when our cultural urge is to venture out.

Above all, this trial asks us to congeal and come together when the path of least resistance in this country has become one of division and pulling apart. If the adage, “we’re all in this together,” was ever applicable, it is in this instance.

Given that the president’s response constitutes an abdication of leadership, it becomes incumbent on the broader public to lead. Given Trump’s core inability to unite, and his instinct in almost all cases not even to try, the country must do so in spite of him.

We suffer no shortage of subjects to argue about. The election campaign will amplify many of them. But no matter how hard, and how contrary to the trigger-happy habits we have formed, what if we put this historical health crisis into its own box, separate and apart from the customary political wars?

In the meantime, a piece of advice: Relish the summer and the chance to be outdoors. This virus will be with us for a while, and the winter could be long and lonely.

Our test is not over. Not by a long shot.