Today’s blog post has images of front pages from coast to coast. The thing about our new not normal is it makes one feel as if we are living in a bubble. We forget everyone is living a version of this bubble.
We get up and we move about our houses. Maybe we take a walk or a bike ride solo or go for a run. A lot of us are working from home. A lot of us have been laid off or furloughed. Others are on the front lines and work in grocery stores or as medical professionals, first responders, police, and fire.
People are dying. People are separated from their families. People who have lost family members can’t have funerals or memorial services.
And people are delaminating because they can’t cope. It’s insane. You see even more flare-ups on social media. You see the normally politically kooky going completely off the rails. People are bickering who never bicker. Domestic violence is being reported to be on the rise. This coronavirus life is stressful. In the good old days you could maybe walk away from stress for a little while. But we are all on stay at home orders so for some, where can they go?
Occasionally I have days as I have mentioned where I just miss normal life. I don’t mind being at home with my family. But I miss seeing my friends face to face. I miss seeing my mother and stepfather and father in law. I miss being able to talk to my neighbors less than six feet apart. It’s about missing normalcy.
We are all missing normalcy. Only not everyone can process that for what it is. Processing is hard some days, but people we have to stick to it and keep on keeping on. Come on we ALL wonder what comes next and what the world will be like. We are living the great unknown.
And then there are all the media reports coming from reporters homes. I am fascinated at the backdrops some choose. Some people strip the personal out of their at home TV “studios”, some do not. I am also impressed how all of these reporters are so professional and human delivering the news in scenarios they didn’t teach them when they were pursuing their journalism degrees.
And the medical professionals. They are just so fabulous. Every time I see people cheering them on the news, I cheer a little too. Like first responders they are on the front lines.
So we need to keep on doing our parts. I know it’s hard. But the alternative is more grim than our current unreal reality. And to be honest, the people who swear their freedoms are in peril freak me out.
Seriously you want to go protest? Can you all please get a grip. Government doesn’t want to be your babysitter but too many people won’t stay home. And they aren’t doing the basics we just have to do, like it or not.
And the pontificating politicians in Washington DC including the Tweeter in Chief? They talk a good game but they don’t walk in our shoes and never will. Chief Tweeter sounds like he’s part of the Twilight Zone in press conferences and then seems to wish to incite riots and anarchy via Twitter? If the politicians can’t keep it together it makes it tougher for the rest of us, doesn’t it?
I saw again today driving home from a necessary outing people not even trying. People not social distancing at all. It was a group of 6 or 8 adults. Older than me, so theoretically old enough to know better. No masks, no gloves, no nothing. Sitting together on benches. If they were just six feet apart. But they weren’t. And it’s because of stuff like this we are still at home. That and the people who seem to need to cause a ruckus and put people at risk in a Main Line grocery store.
For real.
Read it here in Philadelphia Magazine and be appalled. I admit I do wonder every day what people are doing with all the toilet paper, canola oil, garlic powder, chicken, and Lysol products. But I am not going to go to the grocery store and behave like some hideous diva if something I buy is a different brand than normal. I am just grateful when I can get what I need to buy.
Please. We can do this. We have to. We need to remember the blessings. They exist. Good things still exist. Love one and other, love your neighbors. WE.CAN.DO.THIS (if we want to)
Thanks for stopping by and have a good weekend.
