It is more than three years since I have had a cold or flu of any kind. I guess that social distancing and mask-wearing have made the difference? It almost has to be so. I used to have at least one cold in every season. My supposition is that those who are still protesting vaccines, masks and distancing haven’t noticed that..yeah..it works. It hasn’t worked for them and that might be because they didn’t distance and didn’t vax and didn’t mask-up?
The above having been said, I am now in the throes of a quite fierce head cold. This cold, I contracted whilst not social distancing very religiously. I grew weary of the bubbling ooze from the so-called news. I traveled to another land with friends and acted a bit like things were as they used to be in the not-so-distant past. I didn’t always have my mask on, I let someone kiss me on the cheek (bare lips, bare cheek) and I have the running around to crowded taverns, clubs and beaches to thank for the cold I am now suffering. I hope I learned something.
We are landing on the steps of the future as Covid fades to the background. It isn’t the killer it was. We have a choice to vaccinate and protect ourselves from major difficulties. No, I don’t think vaccines will keep us from getting Covid. Yes, I do think vaccines will keep us from being seriously ill. I trust the doctors, they were certainly right about masks and distancing. I saw the evidence with my own two, tv and Facebook watchin’ eyes.
The whole process of Covid and it’s mitigation gave me a good look at who we are, world-wide. What/how are we to each other? Is something different?
There are the smart-cookies and the bad-apples amongst us. Always will be, always have been. There are the ordinary folk, doing ordinary things and following the rules as best they can, minding their own damn business. There are the holier-than folk, doing self-proclaimed righteous work and impeding orderly progress as best they can. The holiers shout out! The holiers cry for relief from their woe some pain. That pain – a minor and probably temporary loss of freedom – is like a stepped-on-toe. Oh the inappropriate hollering of the holiers!
Yeah, the hollering of the holiers. Yeah, the minding of one’s own affairs. That is pretty human. Always a voice to lead us astray, always hearth and home to lure us back to fundamentals. What is different about now? About the days of world travel and its risks?
Yowser! It may be that the ultra-megaphone of ol’ devil technology has provided us an illusion. It may be that the holiers who holler only SEEM louder, that the ordinary minders of their own business only SEEM softer. We are looking at all of this through the lens of what passes for modern communication. We are seeing high definition, amplified, colour-corrected, back-lit, shades of the same rose ‘twas always there. Yeah.
I am going back to the life I was leading before the toilet overflowed and washed my heart to a dirty brown. Just about got the mess cleaned up and am getting ready for the next tragedy. It remains in my best interests to try to follow the rules a little, get upset a little, live a little, distress less, mind my own business. The holiers who holler are killing folks in Ukraine now and there is nothing much I can do about it. I will mind my own business and not listen to the holiers on every side. I will believe that it works out in the end and I will remain true to my own core. No, I don’t mean ‘look the other way’…I do mean ‘don’t let it destroy you’, if you get crazy and grab a weapon or holler like hell—- you will always go wrong. I let the upside down, shit-brown world get me crazy and I slipped from my containment bubble a moment. I got a cold again. That’s the truth and the proof.
Robert On The Air 