Quarantine week six, day 38

The stories unfolding this week aren't uplifting as in the past five weeks. No more stories of nightly cheers for healthcare workers or neighbors helping neighbors. It's beginning to get real out in the world. People are revolting at stay-at-home orders. Tempers are flaring. Bank accounts are quickly depleting. Businesses are shuttered--possible for good.

And yet, COVID-19 rages on.

My week started with someone calling to discuss "this COVID situation." It was a random call from an old neighbor who I speak to maybe once or twice a year. He said he called me because I was "opinionated" and "could be counted on for an intelligent discussion."

I was working in my office--busy filling out my genealogy tree and hunting down long lost relatives in the 1700 and 1800s. I was taken aback. Especially when he informed me this virus was nothing more than a broader flu mostly made-up by the democrats to take down our president.

Him: "Do you know anyone with the virus? You, personally?"

I didn't then. While I knew people who had family members afflicted, I didn't personally know anyone who was sick with the coronavirus. Thank god. Unfortunately, I do now, but then--I didn't.

He felt that proved his point. The one-sided conversation--at times significantly heated--went on for over an hour. When it ended, I was left with a stomach ache, ugly feelings, and anger so hot it took me hours of ranting and raving and texting to get over.

Why is it certain people need validation? Why do they expect others to get it right and then knock them down when they aren't? It reminded me of those people during hurricane season who pooh-pooh the coming storm, bitch about the grocery supplies running low, and then mock the forecasters when the hurricane turns and misses taking us all out.

Not everyone is a seer, buddy. But hey, I'd rather err on the side of caution than go into a store without my face mask.

Me: "Have you read people's accounts of being sick? Because I have, and I don't want this virus for anyone."

Him: "I won't get it. But I take precautions. I wash my hands. I wear a mask. But what this is doing to the economy is criminal. It will devastate this country, and eventually, we won't be able to print more money. The media has blown this way out of proportions, and we need to open businesses back up and get on with life."

And apparently, he isn't the only one. Protests are happening while I type. Governors are opening states. Humans aren't wearing masks or standing six feet apart. Misinformation is being spouted that this disease doesn't affect our youngsters. People are over this virus--over what it has done to our world, and by golly, they are restoring things, and if the rest of us don't comply--

I hate to even speculate...

I get it. As much as I can, I get the despair from the economy. Even though I've not been greatly affected here at my house--my husband and daughter are still working--I've been afflicted. Anyone who has a financial portfolio has been hit, and while I don't worry at this time whether or not I can pay my rent or my weekly grocery bill, none of it will matter if I'm dead. And that is what this virus does--it kills--at a rate quicker and deadlier than the flu.

It's raging across the world at warp speed, taking down people regardless of age, race, and social standing. It's killing the healthy. It's killing the weak. And yes, it is killing our youth. Unlike the flu, this virus is destroying humans internally long after it has left the body--the liver, the heart, the lungs, the brain. It spreads from person to person and multiplies inside the body much quicker than the flu, and so if avoiding crowds is the answer to slowing it down--count me in.

My caller asked me if I would sit and eat in a restaurant when they opened. Would I go to a movie? Fly? How long before I would? A week? Three months? A year? Two?

I can't answer any of that. Contrary to the phone calls I receive, I don't have the answers. I don't think anyone--just like the meteorologists predicting where a hurricane will hit--has the exact answers. Life isn't like that, nor is it perfect. Mistakes are made. We are only human. But what we can do is try.

Try to eradicate this virus. Try to get a vaccine made. Try to slow down the spread. Try to open up this country. Try to respect one another, whether we agree with each other's beliefs.

Open your business if you must. Venture out into the world and go about life as you once knew it. I'm okay with you doing that, but please--for the love of the rest of us who chose to stay in quarantine--WEAR A MASK, AND STAY SIX FEET AWAY!