As we are now in the middle of the semester, I am so curious about how many of us have had or know someone who has had COVID-19. We walk around with only half of our faces showing, taking for granted that our neighbours who walk next to us are who they claim. (I also wonder if the crime rate has gone up with all this opportunity to have our faces covered.)
We as a general population seem to be taking this all in stride now; seeing someone without a mask is enough to make us jump backward in surprise.
In the beginning we were panicked, and rightly so. There was a similar impact to society as there was in the 1960s when people were building bomb shelters. I don’t know if they were lining their shelter shelves with massive amounts of toilet paper, but I know that the grocery stores had shortages on canned produce and Spam.
Picking up the pieces after something breaks is usually an arduous process. Especially if it is an unexpected, worldwide break. It also applies to ourselves, of course. People don’t want the jobs back that were lost when COVID-19 broke out. It’s not just about being sad and maybe a bit cranky over the whole mess, but people were forced to discover new ways to function in the broken society. It’s hard to imagine some gigantic broom-and-dustpan solution for what has been lost.
I still want to remain optimistic and believe in the greater good. It has always been creativity, cheerfulness, and genuine empathy with some backbone that wins in the end. But hearing about the invasion of the Ukraine this morning really freaked me out. Isn’t taking a breather a feasible option at this point? Geez.