The world we once knew has dissolved into a chaotic mess. Nothing is the same. Toilet paper and hand sanitizer are a rare species these days. It feels like your going on safari to shop for groceries. May as well pack the binoculars and train them up the paper product aisle from the meat department. “Well mate, there is no toilet paper; we can skip that section.” Shopping for fun that’s out of the question. Restaurants, what’s that? There is talk about meat shortages. Headline news talks about farmers euthanizing millions of chickens, pigs, and cattle. When you go out in public and you have allergies, you don’t want to sneeze for fear of being scrutinized.
I see the panic in everyone’s eyes. I know people are sick and dying from this virus, and this is a sad fact. Here is where it begins to have gray areas for me; my mind grapples with so many questions. Why is this virus disrupting the world from functioning correctly? Governments are pumping billions of dollars into the system, trying to prop up each sector. Is this sustainable over the long term? Why is this virus feared more than other things that bring death? Smoking, for example, kills almost 50 thousand people yearly in the USA? Smoking also kills around 41 thousand people each year from second-hand smoke. Tobacco is still for sale in the US every single day, and nobody panics. No one wants to shut down the world for that. “Well, aren’t you afraid of this virus,” someone may ask. “I’m not afraid of it, and I will take precautions when I’m out and about.
We have things that threaten our lives every day, flu, accidents, heart attacks, stroke, bacteria, HIV, viruses, to name a few. These do not stop people from eating unhealthy, driving on the roads, and making poor choices. The fact that none of us are immune to death doesn’t shut down nations. There is one thing that can and will shut down everything, and that is fear. Fear of the unknown will shut down countries. We all will face that day when we take our last breath and close our eyes for the last time, whether it be from disease or accidents, it’s all the same in the end. Well, aren’t you being morbid? No, I feel there are too many questions with no clear answers. Watching the news doesn’t help; it just feeds fear. I don’t want people to die, but they will, and the facts are facts no matter how we look at them. Am I suggesting people be reckless? Not at all! Do we all want the world back to normal? I’m sure we do. I can’t see it going back to normal, and it will be a new reality for us all. So please don’t panic and leave some toilet paper for the next person!