Some old literature and quotes come back into your mind at times when you think that the world is turning upside down and nothing is making much sense anymore.
Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. But no, your life that you live and will live will not always turn out as you expected that you thought it should. Sometimes there are things like global disasters – like a pandemic – and the occasional “Pinky and the Brain” type situation where we get unlucky (for us) and a narcissistic uneducated egomaniac gets a seat in the Oval.
OK, so I am not delusional. I don’t think I am losing the plot (key phrase here is “I don’t think“). It is verifiable. Many people are struggling to make sense of this rapidly changing crazy world we live in. There is the pandemic. There is the economy. There is the political situation. There is that existing undercurrent of racism that has been ubiquitous that is now in the headlights – where people finally have decided that enough is enough.
There is the whole aspect of everyone getting on everyone else’s nerves. Whereby those people that they normally will tolerate and look the other way – well that isn’t happening so much anymore. People have frayed nerves. People are getting crabby. People are getting picky about who to blame for getting us where we’ve arrived. This is not a vacation. This is a disaster of enormous proportions.
“Take care of yourself” (lots of articles on this subject). “What to do if…” (lots of articles on this subject). And wait, wait, there’s more! There is so much information out on the “intergoogle” that to sort through it takes enormous effort. Platforms like Twitter are stepping up (Thank YOU, Jack Dorsey!). They are being strong(er) than the others.
Mark, you are a wuss and totally inept at figuring out how to turn the lashing giant monster, Facebook, back into something that you put together as a kid… that was just kind of fun. I remember when this happened. What is ironic is that you, the extreme nerd, of all people tried in this platform, to help others be social! Hah! What a joke.
Instead, you created the #1 monster – likely the one that has enabled and empowered this current situation that we all face. You enabled the idiot to get a seat in the Oval. Good job! (NOT). You might just enable a civil war before all is said and done.
By this point, everyone knows this at some level – but some still insist that this is “fake news”. Sadly, a lot of people are hopelessly addicted to their Facebook, or so naive that they don’t understand that they are part of the problem – that they feed the beast. Yes, they look on at those of us who are ready to yank their accounts as “nutjobs” because we are reacting in an “extreme” way. There are plenty of us out here, trust us.
Back to the real issues – some of us are terrified of the unseen micro-enemies – those that are dead set on munching their way through the human race – blind to the what the human race actually is – to them, we are just stuff to munch in their will to propagate and survive another day to propagate to survive another day, and on and on until they don’t. This is the stuff that science fiction alien invasion movies are based upon – things that don’t understand our psyche – effectively, they do not care one iota as to what you think, what you do, who you love – or anything about you – you are just a “thing”. Maybe prayer helps, but obviously, God has different ideas. Perhaps the solution to the problem – like the Day the Earth Stood Still?
There are those people who are saying, “Whatever… I can’t worry about it. Something will get us anyway, and maybe this is that thing…” Others say, “I will just pray. The Lord will decide if I am to be a victim of this, and I have faith in Him.”
Others are into the “conspiracy theories” that literally go all over the place, like a dendritic storm of nightmares, pushing up dirt whenever they can to do whatever it is that conspiracy theorists do – disrupt, I guess? Get attention? Focus on the outlandish, just to see how many people they can hook? I don’t know. All that I do know is that it just makes extra work for those myth-busters, or the snopes people, or those who investigate facts or fiction and give Pinocchio ratings…
This is pretty much where we are – but with some added efforts to keep ourselves reasonably safe, maybe this will get us through until that undetermined time when some solution is found – but, as we hear, this one is a tricky bugger.
One thing that we understand that this COVID-19 virus, a member of the corona virus family, is not the garden variety “flu” and lies somewhere less severe than Ebola, which is not a corona virus, but more severe than influenza, which is a corona virus – and the scientific communities are still establishing where it is related to SARS and MERS.
Because it affects some people very differently, the scientists are trying to understand why that is – and because testing is not mature (or widely available everywhere) – and The Idiot has messed this up in the USA – the country with the most confirmed cases – by “de-standardizing” testing. Anything from the tests themselves being suspect, to how many are available, to private labs doing DYI things, and then the commercialization “opportunities” being “encouraged” that circumvent the normal assurances and approvals that something is what it is and does what it should… All bets are off.
So, we deal with it day by day. Some days we get totally sucked into this. Some days are calmer and our thoughts are not as busy – and we do not get as agitated because of the news that we hear. Sometimes it is more peaceful just to shut off the noise of news and just listen to music.
As many of our wise elders have said in the past, “this too shall pass”. They were and are still right. It is just the matter of those of us who are thinking about this being around after the pass. Will we? Who can predict? Truth be told, our capabilities for adaptation are pretty well set into motion. We think we have some levels of control, but we are merely expressing our emotions – our “non-expression” is an expression, as well.
Love watching “Schitt’s Creek”. It is the best narrative of how people cope with sudden change in their lives all around. The conversations are just like what many of us have with people – nuanced to the hilt, representative of the different levels of thinking as they mesh with conversation and communication – the way that one innuendo can be taken either concretely or as innuendo intended to take the listener to somewhere else – and the art of the pause – well represented here by Alexis, the daughter who often you wonder if she understands what was said or if she is crafting her next move. Need levity? Watch this series!
So just know, the elephants are there listening – large and silent in every room wherever you are, and they are thinking about when to stampede. Or not.
