The title basically covers my whole strategy towards Covid 19. I am in my late 40’s male, and with no underlying health conditions. So if I become one of the many to acquire our recently discovered pathogen there’s a good chance I would get through. But, and here’s the thing, the virus is already known to have mutated over 30 different times since it came to our attention, which makes me realise if I take anything for granted I would be a fool. Yet, we’ve all seen people doing just that. Have you seen these Stateside protests over the infringement of civil liberties? Traffic jamming highways and the demands that the lockdown be lifted? Isn’t it odd that many of those waving placards and leaning out of cars are chronically obese and likely to have a variety of related health conditions? You’d kind of think they would be erring on the side of caution? But no, freedom trumps all. Freedom at any cost.
Any cost? You sure about that, buddy? And cost to who? Yourself, the others you may infect? Surely there is a calculus we are required to make during these times? We’re all walking a road we’ve not had to before. It’s sometimes weird, frequently surreal, and the target keeps moving. And we’re also a bit quick to be critical of the experts, the scientists who are doing, as far as I can tell, the best they can to manage the variables in play here. Now you know me well enough to know that I’m no sheep. I can kick up a stink with the best of them. But you’ll notice I’ve fallen in line to a disturbing degree here. It’s because this isn’t just my battle to lose. If I fuck things up there’s a potential cost to family, to colleagues, to people I may never meet. Now, more than ever before we have to think beyond ourselves. We have to make sacrifices based on the greater good, on limiting the potential harm. Your enemy is my enemy, and it has crossed social and political divides in a way nothing else ever has. So sure, we can bitch about our leaders, about the lack of this or the failure to foresee that. I hear you, but I think that a gentleness and a willingness to take, dare I suggest it, a herd approach, might serve everybody’s interest right now?
On a personal level I’m doing fine. I have not missed a day’s work, and I appreciate how fortunate that makes me. I have not been fired, furloughed, or placed on reserve. I remain glad. I’m better off in the midst of the shit storm rather than chirping away at the edges. And when this is all done, and it will be at some point in the future, perhaps we can remember what we learned? That kindness trumps cruelty, compassion trumps contempt. That essential workers don’t work in the stock exchange or media studies, but in Supermarkets and hospitals. They drive vans, they deliver essentials to vulnerable people, or patrol the streets to ensure we’re all being as wise as we can be. One thing I’m really glad of is that I get to go home to my wife and my two daughters, and I value that all the more in the knowledge that many are currently alone and having to be apart from the things that make them whole. To you guys just know that I am thinking of you. I know it’s hard. Everything we took for granted has been upended, and we’re all having to walk a different way. This time will pass, the morning will come, and we will emerge changed and, perhaps, a little more whole? Perhaps if nothing else, we will be able to recalibrate our minds and learn to truly appreciate the fundamentals; relationship, connection, interaction.
Keep on trucking Earthlings. We’re going to be OK.
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