What Do You Have To Lose?
Today my heart is big and sore, it’s trying to beat right through my chest… (patty griffin)
Today, not sure why, but it is all too much today. My heart, head, soul- everything hurts today. I ache for the experiences and education my children are losing, I cry as I drive by businesses built with sweat, love and dreams, now shuttered - some permanently. I feel the exhaustion of my health care friends who have held the hands of dying strangers so they won’t be alone, the confusion and frustration of my teacher friends who are being asked to prepare for a zillion different scenarios. My arms feel the emptiness of hugs I am not able to give and my heart feels the heaviness of a world that just can’t seem to get out of it’s own way.
It seems like now should be a time when we could all stop the bickering and the divisiveness - and just be people. People who care about your kids, my kids, your parents, my parents, you, me. You would think that something like a global pandemic would bring out the common humanity in us all.
It seems simple - do what you can to take care of yourself, your family and others around you. Instead I see constant fighting, arguing, insulting, bullying and attacking. Is wearing a simple piece of fabric that may help slow the spread of this invisible enemy, that is destroying so much of what we call life, really that offensive, that inconvenient?
How entitled have we all become. It offends ME, it’s restricting MY rights, I find it uncomfortable, YOU can’t tell ME what to do. I’m a fucking American, I do as I please. To me it all seems to have shed light on all that is wrong with us as citizens of this planet. If we can’t even work together to fight a virus, I have very little hope of us solving the other issues that plague us.
Perhaps it is time to step outside ourselves for just a moment- to consider that perhaps it might be wise to listen instead of shout. To see that sometimes it might not be about YOU, but about those who live around you. Not everything is a conspiracy to take away your personal freedoms. Science is real - and we are experiencing it in real time. Things will be learned about this virus, then found to be incorrect. Information will change, sometimes daily - such is the nature of scientific discovery. It doesn’t mean you are being duped or manipulated.
Do you want your kids to have a “normal” childhood and educational experience? Do you want to be able to do as you please, go where you like, hug, kiss, work, play….live? Take a chance that maybe the people telling you to wear masks and social distance just might have your best interests at heart.
Really, what do you have to lose?