I have spent the last week watching the balance on my credit card go up as I frantically searched for items for those on my Christmas list. Each year I tell myself I’m going to stop doing this and simply put up my tree, pour a glass of eggnog, and send everybody a card with a small enclosure. This year in particular between recovering from Covid, being unable to go into stores to shop, and the general mess our world is in this would have been a completely understandable approach to take to the season. But did I do this? Nooooo. Instead I made myself crazy trying to think of just the right gift, ordered it on line, and prayed it would either get here or to whoever I sent it to in time for Santa’s big day. Why? Because I love to do it. Perhaps I was an elf in a former life? Wrapping presents with A Miracle on 34th Street playing on the TV is one of my favorite ways to wile away a winter afternoon. A steaming cup of cocoa with the lights glimmering on the tree makes everything feel safe and oh so festive.
I haven’t felt too safe of late. Maybe that’s why I rescued the holidays this year. It’s like, let’s salvage something out of 2020, lest we just have to discard the entire year as a bust and move on. Yesterday, I took my first trip outside of the house since I got a positive result on my virus test the first of November. Oddly, or perhaps not, I found it a little unsettling. For those of you who aren’t working or haven’t been regularly going out to run errands etc., you might well understand this feeling. Suddenly it felt like our world has taken on a bit of a sinister tinge with everything I touched or everyone I came in contact with a possible donor for “the bug”. Most likely, having had it, I have developed a temporary immunity. This would be the side blessing to the miserable symptoms the virus brings along in it’s bag of tricks. According to three different medical professionals I have talked to since receiving yet a second positive test two weeks ago, I am no longer contagious. That being said, my vet, my allergist, and several others have opted out of enjoying the pleasure of my company at several recent appointments after being informed of these results. Hmmmm. To be sure I wore a mask, donned a suit of armor, immersed myself in a vat of Lysol and went in and out of a UPS store without standing near to or touching anything with the inclusion of using my own pen to fill out the requested forms.
While standing on one of the now familiar social distancing spots instructing patrons to “Stand Here” in UPS, a lady bustled through the door with a 33 gallon trash bag full of boxes. Without so much as a glance to the line of people waiting their turn, she marched up to the counter and dumped everything out in front of the clerk waiting on the customer before me. The clerk, a really wearied looking woman who most probably was telling herself she wasn’t getting paid nearly enough to do what she was doing, starting checking in this ladies packages. People behind me started to murmur among themselves. Oblivious apparently, this woman continued to fill out paperwork for the at least fifteen boxes she took out what seemed like a bottomless bag of goodies. Really? I was digging deep to locate my holiday spirit and trying so hard to be a pleasant human being. Life is so stressful lately, was it really worth it to add to the ugliness already floating around in the air? Possibly. I asked the clerk politely, “Do you take appointments?”. The clerk looked at me as though she could happily shove all this ladies boxes on the ground, grab her coat, and head home for a glass, or possibly an entire bottle, of wine, but said, “no, why”? I said I just wondered because the woman she was waiting on just walked in front of everyone else who had been waiting patiently in line as though she had scheduled a time to be waited on. It got very quiet. The lady with the packages shot me a look that did not convey “happy holidays”. Sorry. Sometimes you have to speak up for what is right. After the brief silence, the customers behind me clapped. You’re welcome.
Being quiet in the face of injustice, somehow to my mind makes you complicit. Whether you speaking up creates change in the outcome, in a way becomes irrelevant. More, it is the willingness to stand up for what you believe in and speak your peace in spite of loud objections from those of a different opinion. Over the past few weeks I have watched our country sink into the quicksand and it makes my heart sad. Where are the idealists these days, or have people just sold out to fill their pocketbooks or stoke their egos? Someone on Facebook commented the other day masks were for sheep, and wearing a mask compromises your immune system. There is so much garbage floating around on the information highway, it is hard to know what direction to follow. It is unbelievable to me these small face coverings, a minor inconvenience at best, have created such a furor in our citizens. As I’ve said before, if I thought it would save one person from being sick, or worse yet dying, I would wear a mask every day.
A vaccine, or several viable possibles, are on the way. This poses a new dilemma. Will people take the vaccine? In order to stop this virus from continuing to demonize our lives, I heard something like 80% of the population need to surrender their arms and get the shot. I told someone the other day I would be first in line and was surprised when she responded “I can’t believe you’re going to take that Kool Aid. Why would you”? I struggle to understand this thinking, while at the same time trying to wrap myself around the ideology I am not always right. What? I know. To me it is like having a flat tire in a remote area. You have a jack in the trunk but have never used one. Though not really familiar with the workings of the jack, you could take a chance on using it and putting on the spare and getting out of there, or you could sit there until a bear comes along and makes you his afternoon snack. Perhaps not the best analogy, but you get the idea…..hopefully. If obtuse was a lifestyle, I would be living the life.
My asthma is a condition that makes it even less desirable to invite Covid-19 into my body. I never had asthma until fifteen years ago, going through most of my adult life without it. Twice I have been hospitalized for it, but thankfully these days it is pretty well controlled with daily steroid regimens and occasional Nebulizer treatments. There are many people out there are dealing with so much more, so I shall never complain about having to handle this.
To add to the mix, people are about to run out of government funded programs to help see them through this epidemic. Congress, is perched on the precipice of going home for the holidays with no stimulus bill in sight. How does that work? Basically, legislators work for the people last I heard. So, you just break for a week or three and leave everybody without food on the table or any relief from possible eviction? Well, they have food, and health care, and a roof over their heads. That’s like owning a business such as a restaurant. You have placed a massive food order for the expected holiday diners and your entire wait and kitchen staff takes off their aprons and heads home leaving you to fend for yourself. Unbelievable that they could not reach a compromise on some kind of help before shutting off the lights and going home. Perhaps they still will. I will choose the high road and leave the light on for them.
So, that is my rant for today. Hope this finds you well and looking forward to the holidays. Talk soon.
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