I was going to start this post with some trite comment about surviving another week in this apocalyptic hell, but realized almost immediately that not everybody has survived. So many people I know has lost someone in the last few weeks, or has a loved one in the hospital that they can’t visit. Nearly everyone I know has fears that a vulnerable person they love might contract this virus.
And, while we all need some light hearted humor in times like these, what we don’t need is flippant commentary that makes light of the situation. We are standing at a precipice with our incompetent government poised behind us with a cattle prod, ready to send us hurtling to our deaths on the rocks below.
I try not to get overly political on this blog, but we can’t afford to not be political in this situation. It is pretty clear to me that those at the top care nothing for the rest of us, and the idiots that are being goaded into protesting to end the very protections that are keeping us semi-safe, care nothing for people they do not know. It’s going to take major losses of people who they do know and care about to reach through the cult-like group think that keeps them doing the bidding of a man who has used public office to rake in millions of dollars.
How can anybody look at the death toll numbers that climb and climb every single day and not realize that we are not doing enough to curb this thing? How can they see stories and posts from our doctors and nurses who are fighting tooth and nail to save people without the proper PPE and with no effective treatment plan, and still demand their right to go to the movies or the beach or wherever the hell else it is they think is so damned important?
I know someone who lost her husband this weekend. He was thirty six. She had to drive him to the doors of the ER and leave him there because they wouldn’t let her in. In less than twenty four hours he was in the ICU on a ventilator, unable to talk. Her last words to his face were, “Call me when you know anything. I love you.”
He died alone, with a stranger in a mask beside him, holding his phone to his ear as his wife tried to say goodbye through choked tears. He leaves behind a wife and three kids who are now under quarantine having to rely on the kindness of strangers to keep them fed. Right now, they aren’t sure where he contracted the virus, as he made every attempt to be safe, but he had taken a job as a delivery driver after getting laid off from his regular job. He had said he just wanted to help in this time of crisis.
His desire to help got him killed.
Make no mistake, Readers, this virus is a killer, and it doesn’t care how old you are or how healthy you are. It comes out of nowhere and can strike down a person in a week, maybe less.
So, stay the hell at home please! The life you save could be your own, or your mother’s or your spouse’s, your kids, your neighbor. Please be safe. Love one another. Be kind. These are weird times.
Cover Photo by Scott Webb on Unsplash
And then there’s this picture of Katie Bouman, one of the scientists on the project as she sees all of that work coming to fruition. Look at the joy and wonder on her face. That is the face of someone who loves her work, who has passion for her work and is genuinely in awe of the universe at her fingertips.
