Venting over our ‘new normal’

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 13/11/2020 (930 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The happy times we took for granted may never repeat themselves the same way. There’s been a shift — a global cataclysm that has altered the rules we live by. In spite of modern medicines life has become an even more perilous highway.

Something bigger than you and I has surfaced — a microscopic bug that has split up our lives.

All around the world, people are dying from this cantankerous virus, so strong that it kills, yet so weak that soap and water can dismantle its power.

This is an enemy we can’t see, smell or feel. It can literally take our breath away. Some patients have to be attached to machines that breathe for them, yet a cloth or paper mask is said to protect us.

It’s hard to wrap our minds around the fact that this virus jumps so easily from one to another.

Yet some complain that mandatory masks that guard against this disease cancel their human rights. Does that make sense?

Our instinct urges us to present an open, friendly face to each other. Personally, I  have to make an effort to hide my face behind a mask. It doesn’t seem natural or right. We judge ourselves by each other’s facial expressions. When we cannot see these clues, we are at a loss. Suddenly we are looking at a blank canvas.

Masking, however, is imperative if we hope to keep the numbers of sick people down and to protect ourselves.

Another habit we must adopt for the next while is two-metre distancing. This is also for everyone’s protection but young people have trouble dealing with it. We are drowning in the second wave of COVID-19. What throws a kink in the caboodle is that many of us are not aware we’re carriers and can pass it on. To prevent this from happening, health officials assure us that if we take precautions, numbers will go down. If this doesn’t work, more regulations will follow.

My thoughts these days centre on folks over 60 as well as those with compromised immune systems. These are the risk-takers and we worry about them. Of course the front-line health workers are vulnerable, too. They are modern-day heroes who expose themselves daily
Nevertheless, I gripe and complain. It’s been six months of self-isolating because close relatives and friends have become nervous. In fact everyone is fed up with the whole business.

Young people are anxious to resume their former activities. We are all straining and stressing under the same ongoing threat.

Everyone wants to know when a vaccine will be made available. We grumble and groan, but I think it’s human nature to vent. We have to be patient, however.

There’s no choice. We mask, distance ourselves — and hope for the best.

Be safe, everyone.

Freda Glow is a community correspondent for the North End.