I got a phone call from my second wife this morning at 5 am (she's a little foggy on the time difference between Bali and Portland, Oregon). This was in response to a recent message I had sent asking about the coronavirus issues in the States. I wondered if the YouTube news stories I had seen were exaggerated or if things really were that serious.
It turns out that the reports I hear are not exaggerated. Cities are shutting down, store aisles are bare, toilet paper is gone, schools are closed, sparse traffic on the freeway even at rush hour. People are freaked out.
She feels, as I do, that there is a liberal pinch of paranoia in all this. And she is really not one to shy away from disaster tales and apocalyptic scenarios. In a way, I reckon, we have been primed for this sort of thing by popular fiction. We are not taken by surprise because we have seen this in the movies and television series. Now it is upon us. We are familiar with it. We are ready. We know our parts.
In fact, I was impressed by her level headedness.
Besides that, what is this virus, or any other, compared to simple old age, to poorly controlled diabetes, to being unable to buy medications, to the regular challenges of every day life? What is it compared to MS, to an incurable stomach ulcer, to daily fatigue and weakness and pain and confusion? We already have a virus. We all have the virus. It's called human mortality.
1 comment:
Italy did not take it seriously. Now the corpses are overwhelming the morgues and crematoriums. People over 70 are triaged to die outside the hospitals.
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