It’s a sad man, my friend, who’s living in his own skin and can’t stand the company.
In so many ways that is the biggest problem with the pandemic. You have to spend so much time with yourself.
My life has been a series of diversions all designed, more or less, to keep me away from any painful, horrifying introspection. In my younger days, it was easy, I always knew somebody who had something and was willing to share a few tabs or caps or drinks or snorts or whatever, for a price, there was always a price. As I got older it became more sedate and less sedative. Hikes, kayak trips, roaming through antique stores, flea markets, fairs or festivals.
We are traveling to a distant, lonely place, we hope it is a safe place, just the two of us, which isn’t always all that safe, we’ve had our times. But, we are fairly certain neither of us is infected with anything contagious, certainly nothing fatal. And I really need to get away.
To get there, though, we have to travel, and that is troubling. Stopping for gas, a bite to eat, to use the restroom. You start to really despise people who refuse to wear a face mask, ignore social distancing guidelines, personal space has become more than good manners. We stopped for gas and I was going to get a cup of coffee, but the whole place was filled with bare faces breathing, talking, “Hey, Janeen, c’mon over and check the assortment of energy drinks!” a man yelled, you could almost see the moist, warm breath floating through the air, landing on the handles of the glass covered refrigerator doors. We turned and walked out, coffeeless, there wasn’t enough hand sanitizer in the state to stand in line in that place.
How hard is it put on a mask? I do it all the time. Even on this short trip, I have 5 or 6, one for any mood. We have black gloves, blue gloves, orange and clear, we have hand wipes, hand sanitizer, disinfectant spray and wipes, we could perform battlefield first aid.
I don’t know how a virus became a weapon. It sounds funny reading that last sentence, making the connections, looking back on how Senator Cotton from Arkansas claimed the virus was a weapon accidentally(?) released by a laboratory in China. I don’t really think this is what he had in mind. So many people, some I know, spend so much time talking about the virus being a liberal campaign tool to bring down the president. As if voting wasn’t enough.
The whole paragraph above is almost too odd to believe considering the recent news that Trump has contracted the virus. The final deus ex machina to our sad little tragedy. Now the gods will have to intercede and save us from our hubris.
Somehow it has come to that. Since 2016 America has twisted into one of the oddest, most incomprehensible dramas. It started with the president questioning the validity of an election he won. It has gone downhill since then.
Twisting through embargoes to punish China, paid for by the American public, a wall to prohibit immigration, paid for by the American public, travel bans almost certainly based on religion in the land allegedly founded on freedom of religion, the list doesn’t seem to have an end. It can hardly be surprising that this presidential term ends with a global pandemic, ignored by the administration, smiting the president, the First Lady and God knows how many aides, allies and assistants.
More than anything, though, we are able to go someplace new, different. We always tried to get away from the crush of humanity, and I used to worry about what that said about us. Now we are forced to avoid people and I worry about what it says about humanity.
Our future isn’t looking good.
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