NOT LIKE IN THE MOVIES

 

Well, I really like disaster movies. It's not for dark reasons. Up until now, I liked imagining what the world would be like if there were a really big disruption. This is a product of my relatively secure American life. People in other parts of the world do not have to imagine this.

In my reality though, every time a big disruption has indeed occurred in my region, such as an earthquake, a wildfire, a power shutdown, I hate it. Go figure.

But this time it's different. Unlike in a movie whose scenario is exciting and action packed, we're now living through a slow-motion disaster. We can't even see it. We can only see its outcomes.

First there were the empty streets. Then vacant restaurants and shops, our cities looking like ghost towns. Hospital ICUs began filling up. Medical personnel were desperate for enough supplies. More and more people were struck down by the virus. Eventually though, horrifically, society began getting used to it all.

And denial reared its stupid head. First, the college kids would not be denied their Spring break partying. Then townspeople would not be denied their 4th of July celebrations. Beaches again drew summer crowds. Like a nation composed of nothing but adolescents, Americans would not be denied their traditional fun times, even though their lives were at stake. Finally, the big holidays! We absolutely would not forgo those!

So, like stupid, childish buffoons, we made matters worse. UNTIL! The vaccine finally arrived to save us all. Excruciatingly, we each waited our turn for it. 

Then the most bizarre movement was born. The Denier in Chief of course caught Covid-19, was then hospitalized, and subsequently was secretly vaccinated. He stunningly next proceeded to court his voters by defining freedom as choosing not to be vaccinated. And his followers took him up on that! And they are now dying in throngs! That's right. Kill your voters! Wait, what?

Now there appears to be an unspoken decision by American society to just move forward. If we just go about our normal activities, we can somehow will the pandemic to go away? That's not following the science. And I'm still not comfortable joining the throngs. I want to be alive on this planet a while longer, and for myself, gambling with this virus is not the way to ensure that.

After four years of the most dangerous and dysfunctional leader in U.S. history, and now with close to two years of deadly pandemic, if our nation was a person, we would need intense therapy sessions for years to come in order to even half understand what we have been doing (or not doing) to ourselves.

This is not the disaster movie I was expecting to watch.