We Are Going to Self-Quarantine, Embracing the Human Hysteria
"I don't think pandemics make us afraid of death; I think they make us afraid of oblivion. They force us to grapple with the futility of effort. Also, they make us barf, which isn't fun either... Wash your hands, cover your coughs, and find a way to hold in balance the futility of effort with the necessity to struggle."
Good morning world, I woke with clarity. Eight hours of fantastic sleep, 5:00 a.m. wake time, coffee is made, this is my time, while the rest of the world sleeps. I've got some work to do! I'll be heading up to Muncie a little later today; we have a teammate staying with us while she earns her insurance license. It's fun to have younger folks stay, last night the ladies chatted in the kitchen while I relaxed in the living room.
I'm starting to see some people self-quarantine. I'm thinking about doing it myself. Doing all my meetings virtually, stopping travel, just staying home and letting amazon prime now feed me. If I do this, I'll have to self-quarantine my Queen as well. I can think of worse things than to be locked in our home for two weeks with the one I love.
Imagine the binge-watching we could do. I'm sure there are a lot of shows we can knock out in our spare time, and we have excellent internet here, most of our clients would instead use virtual meetings than take the risk of catching the "new flu." I'm kidding; of course, I'm not fearful of being exposed to anything; God knows we live in a petri dish weekly. I guess if it's my time, it's my time; I'll not live in hiding.
All kidding aside, if I knew I had been exposed, I would separate myself from others, I think it a reasonable thing to do, but how does one know if you have come into contact with an infected member of society? There is no warning system on other humans, imagine the number of people that you interacted with yesterday, it just takes one to catch the pandemic, how safe are we?
Between you and me, I think we are all going to be okay. I think stoking the fears of others is now the main job of the media. I liken the coverage today to that of a snowstorm; you know those once in a lifetime events that will shut down your city for days. They scream it's going to be bad, and when you wake up, there are maybe 2 inches on the ground with those so-called experts stating, "the storm moved to the north."
It is a little concerning that they "locked down" Italy. I was speaking to a friend in Colorado last week, she was about 80, she told me she was going to Italy at the end of the month, at the time I told her I would not be fearful, I would go. But now that the entire country is locked down, I'm not sure my friend will go, and at her age, it might be a good idea to pass and catch Italy later in the year.
I'm like everyone else, just waiting for more information, watching the news, wondering where this story will go. We fly weekly; we have three months of travel booked to fly between our homes. I did notice the last flight home was a little lighter than usual; we will see if this trend continues.
Avon schools just closed for two weeks, I've not been to Avon lately, but there is a chance that when I was out and about yesterday, I crossed paths with an Avon resident. Should I be scared? As of this moment, I have no fear, only hope that this "pandemic" is just another lousy snowstorm that will move to the north.
Maybe this is our new normal, the stock market making significant adjustments, supply lines of our food, and necessities being held up as inspectors test the shipmates for any signs of the disease. Each one of us taking a couple of weeks to make sure we are not contagious, but how do you know when you leave after the fourteen days, you won't be exposed again?
I think if we do self-quarantine, I would like to be on top of our mountain. No disrespect to our other homes, but I think it might be safer on top of the mountain, fewer people, a hell of a view, plenty of freshwaters, and if the food supply chain dries up, we have access to plenty of deer meat. I'll have to YouTube how to kill and butcher a deer; it would be a first for me since I don't have a gun, it would have to be hand to hand combat taking down one of God's beautiful beasts.
Maybe we could get some other folks, a hunter, perhaps a scientist, maybe a nurse, entertainer, a witch doctor, or just invite our best friends to hang and do life sequestered from the rest of the world. Nah, I think, for now, I'm going to go on living my healthy life, washing my hands and taking my chances.
What the world needs now are some reason and data. As time passes, the hysteria will die down; we will learn our fate in time, is this the end of the world, I think not. I'm not a scientist; I'm a reasonable man that knows how some like to stoke fear in others; I'm not a fearful fellow, embracing whatever comes our way. Now is not time to hide, it's time to live, the roads will be less busy, lines at the supermarket will trickle down to a small group, I guess there might be benefits to a pandemic.
Be careful what news you consume, make sure you get all your data and facts from reliable sources, do not trust those that scream "we are at the end of times," live your life as you would, but take precautions to protect yourself and those you love. In a month, we will look back and think about how much snow they predicted and how much actual fell and maybe giggle at our human hysteria.
"I don't think pandemics make us afraid of death; I think they make us afraid of oblivion. They force us to grapple with the futility of effort. Also, they make us barf, which isn't fun either... Wash your hands, cover your coughs, and find a way to hold in balance the futility of effort with the necessity to struggle."