There’s an old cliché attributed as an ancient curse:
“May you live in interesting times.”
Like most of these old sayings, it’s virtually impossible to figure out where it comes from, and if you quote it in its entirety, its more than a little bit racist.
At the same time, oof! Somebody hit the nail on the head!
…and speaking of hitting things in the head, I’ve got a ton of things bouncing around in mine, so its time for a bit of a brain dump to see if I can free up some space. And what better way than to shout it out to the internet, where it can no doubt show up in a few years and come back to haunt me?
So, let’s talk about the elephant in the living room – Coronavirus.
Wow.
As an inherently (let’s go with) “anxious” person I spend a lot of time worrying about almost everything. Its how I roll.
I also spend a – not insignificant – amount of time, money, and medication trying to figure out to how to function in polite society. Or at least fake it. Or at least kid myself into thinking I’m faking it. Or something like that.
(Yeah, yeah, I’m not fooling anybody, work with me here…)
Anyway, you get the idea.
Almost never, in my most zombie apocalypse’d library of dystopian fiction, did I ever think what we’re living through right now might actually happen. That’s why it’s called fiction!
[Side Note: Excellent virus + election year + zombie apocalypse contemporary techno-thriller horror fiction = Newsflesh Trilogy if, you know, you’re stuck in the house and need a few thousand pages to read and kill some time or something…]
Here’s the thing though.
I honestly don’t know whom, or what, to believe about Coronavirus.
Don’t get me wrong. I spend my professional, and way too much of my personal, life consuming information and trying to sort out the messages from the madness.
Coronavirus is too much, too fast, too different, too manipulated, and – I think – too unknown.
I’ll admit, I have – on occasion – been known to wholeheartedly embrace the comfort of my tinfoil hat when it comes to conspiracy theories and what not.
(Shocking…)
I don’t think this is the case this time, and I’ll tell you why:
Follow the money.
There are billions (trillions?) of dollars being lost worldwide due to Coronavirus shutdowns. Rich people are not in the habit of not making money, that’s how they stay rich. For some very powerful people to say, I am going to walk away from my money for a while, for no legitimate reason¸ is something very unlikely to happen – from my perspective.
I’m scared.
My wife says I’ve been preparing for this my whole life.
(That, dear reader, is the kind of support I get on the home front…)
Oddly, I’m not terrified for myself so much. I am concerned, but not panicked about my children. My wife can reap what she sows, so long as she washes her hands regularly.
Who I am worried about, are the old people. My parents, my in-laws, my grandparents, my aunts and uncles. Most of them are of the age where I (sorry, Mom) go “Well, they made it through another winter!” An attack of Coronavirus (or, admittedly, the flu) would not bode well for any of them.
In that case, Social Distancing it is!
Who ever thought we’d see the day where being an ungrateful child who never hauls the grandchildren over to visit would be viewed as a “good” thing?
-MO’B