Common Sense | Compassion | Community

Covid Warriors, Anti-Vaxxers, and Everyone Else: Please Shut Up and Stop Pretending That We Know It All When We Don’t. No One Does — Not for Sure and Not Yet.

It’s time we just do what we’ve always done — Survive

There are endless reasons to doubt what’s out there about Covid. To step back. To raise a fist in protest and declare it morally wrong.

Spoiler alert: We are human beings and are fallible. We create buildings that fall down and rockets that go — Boom. We write elegant programs that fail spectacularly, leaving investors in tears over half-drunk glasses of beer.

We march with gusto, placards, and voices held high — and no one shows up.

Life is messy. It’s depressing. And when it’s exhilarating and glorious — we worry it’ll end soon and start getting depressed all over again.

We fight for the right to fight and forget the reason we’re up in arms. Too busy being indignant to remember we passed on that argument long ago.

Humans and diseases have one thing in common; what all of God’s creatures have in common — the urge to survive.

If it means dying, that’s okay — as long as it ain’t us.

Athletes, doctors, and professional people from all walks join hands with janitors, teachers, and radio talk shows hosts to stake their claim in knowing their bodies, their minds, their right to refuse, and yet they dutifully do what they are told every day.

They obey stoplights and railroad crossings without coercion.

They listen to meteorologists and leave their homes with umbrellas tucked neatly under their arms and their eyes skyward expectantly.

They show up at work on time, attend PTA meetings because we’re supposed to, and fill in official questionnaires correctly because we’re told they’re important.

Each day, every day, we move through life following rules and obeying others because it’s called a Society and when we cash our paychecks and use our credit cards and pay our mortgages, we get to keep all these things and that makes it okay.

We do all of this and more without comment or audible complaint. But there are limits, right? Don’t believe it? It’s why we started muting commercials. We’re simply tired of being told what to eat, what to drive, who to love, and especially, who to vote for.

We’re tired of electing people who are independent thinkers and being disappointed when they follow lobbyists or their own interests and not us.

We show up and do what we’re told and we still lose our jobs and our homes and our identity and we’re supposed to nod and shake it off and start over again.

So, we fight back. We dig in. We resist.

Yes, we get flu shots and shots for diseases we’ve forgotten about, because they’re not around anymore, but sometimes it’s just too much.

We’re not sure masks even work; some say they do; some say they don’t, but we err on the side of self-respect and wear them as chinstraps instead.

We argue on planes and trains and in cafeterias because we’re pissed off and tired of waiting in long lines and being told there are supply chain issues while hundreds of ships wait in their own lines for all to see.

Gas prices go up, heating our homes costs more and we’re told to hang in there while corporate profits skyrocket and Jeff Bezos goes into outer space.

So, we say no. That the science isn’t there and we’re waiting to see.

And we listen to all of this on podcasts in our cars, after we buckle up, look both ways, use our blinkers and onramp carefully as we head to work on time.

We have politicians changing their minds at an alarming rate as they repeat last year’s messages because it doesn’t matter anyway — no one is really listening.

We’re patient and careful and pay our bills on time but we’re still getting sick.

Things are happening to us and we know, deep down we know, that it isn’t right, that we don’t deserve it and it needs to stop.

But it isn’t. So, we’re angry.

And anger needs a target. Any target. Anger needs to be heard and listened to. Even when we’re wrong, it still feels right.

Information and science and grandma’s secret cookie recipe all have the same thing in common — they started off wrong and got right over time.

Science said the earth circled the sun — religion said no and Galileo spent his senior years under house arrest.

What we know now, we know only because we knew we didn’t know before.

So, we looked and we tried and we stumbled and we failed — all before getting it right.

When Covid-19 and the Delta variant and the Omicron variant all walk up to the CDC and explain themselves fully — then we’ll know.

Until then we’re doing what seems right. Like not blowing through a red light seems right when you’ve watched somebody else do it.

Like not lighting a cigarette seems right after watching someone else die because of them.

Doesn’t change who we are. Doesn’t make us weak. It just makes us human, which is after all, what we are.

Science will get it right when it gets it right. It takes time and we know that. We know masks might help. We know washing our hands might help — we do it after going to the bathroom — seems like it helps there.

We know that we don’t know many things like why taxes always go up and why it’s against the law for us to write checks we can’t cover, but not a crime when the government does it.

Yes, it’s confusing and yes, it bothers us greatly.

So, write a letter. Vote them out. Make new placards and march where people will be there to listen.

Target the right source for the pain that isn’t going away.

And then continue to do what seems right based on what has seemed right in the past and actually was.

Final Thoughts

• Breathe • Vaccinate • Mask up • Sleep. • Be nice • Stop making everyone, everywhere responsible for your pain • It’s our world/government/problem — own it. Stop making excuses and pointing elsewhere. If you think we’re not all in this together — try leaving. Gravity is a bitch • Be the effing solution. Like there really is an option. • Practice compassion • Smile. Even with your mask on, people will know.

Dr Mehmet Yildiz Tree Langdon Karen Madej James Knight The Secret Aspirant George J. Ziogas Paul Myers MBA Rebecca Romanelli Desiree Driesenaar Jenine Bsharah Baines Adelia Ritchie Melinda Blau Esther George Stuart Englander Claire Kelly Linda Caroll Salvatore Cagliari