I haven’t felt that motivated to post recently, because, really, what is there to say about the current situation in the U.S. that hasn’t been said already?
If people don’t get that this virus is real, nothing I can say now will change their minds.
Although I have noticed some slippery thinking developing even with those who do take it seriously. My mom believed me when I told her to lock down back in March before our governor told us to, but since then she’s mentioned how she thinks she must be immune to this thing (why, I don’t know, she’s been home for most of the time with very limited exposure). She was also all for getting together this Wednesday to celebrate an early Thanksgiving and my grandma’s birthday even though my grandma is still a bit of a social butterfly and lets my aunt who is also very social into her house all the time.
It’s hard to take the safe course when something hasn’t hit you directly yet. I knew in my heart of hearts that we should not get together this week, but we didn’t cancel until my mom got enough snow to make it too hard to get to her.
Because, what is the risk really? It doesn’t feel like there is one. I still don’t know anyone directly who has gotten this. But in Colorado they currently estimate that 1:110 people have it. That’s based on testing, so the number is probably worse. We went from 200 cases a day not that long ago up to 6,000+ today with no sign of it slowing.
In an environment like this what was maybe safe last week may not be safe this week or next week. That’s the nature of exponential growth. It moves faster than most people are equipped to deal with.
Which means locking down early instead of too late. It’s like driving when there’s black ice. You can’t see the black ice, so better to drive cautiously the whole way rather than risk finding yourself on a patch of black ice, need to stop, and have no ability to do so.
Ugh. It’s frustrating right now. To know all this, see the news and other people talk about it, but then also see them talk about this or that social event or traveling for the holiday or getting together with people. It’s this giant disconnect and it seems people are on the path they’re on and there’s no moving them to a different one. And because of the uneven nature of this thing, many will be just fine so think they made the right choices when they were actually just damned lucky.
If it really only affected the people making the choices, I’d say whatever, I’ll stay home, you do you, God bless. But unfortunately it doesn’t work that way. A maxed out hospital system can’t handle normal medical emergencies. Lord help the person who has an appendicitis two weeks from now, at least here in Colorado. And just look at that wedding that didn’t kill any of the attendees, but did kill seven people in the community…
Anyway. I’m either preaching to the choir or you’re shaking your head at my over-reactive reliance on “fake news”. So back to keeping my head down and doing what I can do right now which it seems is formatting book interiors. Good times!
M.L. Humphrey 