Each day I watch, read, or listen to this Shakespearean tragedy playing out before me. I wake up reminding myself that I haven’t crossed over into The Twilight Zone, walked onto the set of Black Mirror, or auditioned as a contestant on Survivor. This is real-life. It’s happening, and my location is the eye of the storm. I’m watching my favorite city, “The Big Apple” slowly rot to its core. The city that never sleeps, suddenly finds itself desperate and weeps. My home, the Garden State, is now a hardened state as we try and overcome shock at the growing number of deaths.
C O R O N A V I R U S. When I see this word, four specific letters within a sequential order provoke me. The C for China, the country it originated in. The I representing Italy, where the virus overtook this Mediterranean country by storm. Lastly, the U and S representing the United States, leaders of the free world…although one could argue this is highly questionable at the moment. (Although the S could also stand for Spain, a country that quickly caught up with the three hotbeds countries).
Like defiant American’s who pride themselves on freedom, so does coronavirus. It “freely” marched its way into each territory attaching to anything it could, further imperializing its pandemic power.
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In January, I wrote a piece titled 2020… The Year of (Rat)ionality and a few things stood out to me. I discussed the numbers 2020 giving off a symmetrical balance, a wheel guiding the rat race, and feeling like a lab rat. However, one sentence I wrote stood out to me the most, “We’re seven days into the new decade with turmoil shifting our vision, as we focus on pivotal worldly matters.” Although it seems like ages ago, this sentence was referring to the Australian wildfires.
So within the first few weeks of 2020, I had a gut feeling it was going to be a bumpy ride. There were a few other events, of course losing Kobe Bryant is one of them, that left me with a less impressionable feeling.
However, 2020 wasn’t done yet. If we fast-forward to March we land upon me losing my hero, my Grandpa. I’m blessed to have had him for 93 years before his reservation into heaven.
Forty-eight hours later there was a press conference, declaring a National Emergency concerning the Novel Coronavirus Disease Outbreak.
After that, everything was a blur.
Numbers. Percentages. CEO’s stepping down. Deaths. Pleads for help. The blame game. Press conferences. School closings. Cancellations. Discussions of class warfare. Bailout requests. Price gouging. Layoffs. Hoax believers. Naysayers. Travel restrictions. Plunging stock market. Pandemonium. Fights. Tone-deaf people. Long lines. TOILET PAPER. Increase in domestic violence. Food shortages. Uncertainty. Frustration… and so on.
The coronavirus officially hijacked my mind, body, and soul. What I truly saw before me was – Pride. Envy. Gluttony. Lust. Anger. Greed. Sloth. A real-life broadway musical titled, “The Seven Deadly Sins: US Pandemic Edition.”
To be honest, I wasn’t sure whether I was more frightened by the coronavirus or the general population. This was what it boiled down to. The coronavirus is a beast itself, but so are people. People despise change, but change is inevitable.
When you combine fear and uncertainty you can easily implement a divide and conquer technique. It’s guaranteed to work like a charm.
So not only are we battling a virus, we’re battling ourselves.
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Throughout all of this, the one person I wanted to talk to most was my grandpa. I’d call him up and ask him what he thought about the current state of events. He’d be the first person to put a smile on my face and tell me I’m looking at the situation all wrong, and to keep my head up. Then, like any grandparent, he’d go into all the hardships he’d been through. His 93 years of wisdom would sound like a nostalgic melody.
Except for this time, I’d look at the situation differently. Suddenly his habits and patterns would start to make sense like an algorithmic equation. His optimistic outlook on life wasn’t because he was happy all the time, it was a way to work through the pain. His frugal (extremely frugal in his case) habits were because he remembers life through The Great Depression and couldn’t shake that feeling of standing in bread lines, despite his success later on in life. His acceptance and open-mindedness came from being on the receiving end of segregation and brutal discrimination.
More importantly, he’d tell me I’d find a way to get through it, such as he’d done. And he was right. I needed to clear my head and digest the dynamic power shift that was happening.
The world is going to change, regardless if people want to change with it or not will be up to them. But the world I’d previously known is now over. It is time to accept the new normal.
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In regards to my eczema, I don’t even know if I have fingerprints left at this point. My eczema has abandoned ship (in the worst way), so we’ll just leave it at that.
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To all the: Pharm Techs, Nurses, First Responders, Cafeteria Workers, Janitors, Truck Drivers, Delivery People, Securities, EMT’s Nurses Assistants, Housekeepers, Clerks, Administrative Workers, Newscasters, Healers, Researchers, Scientists, Volunteers, The Cuomo Brothers, Dr. Fauci, and EVERYONE ELSE in the US and around the world that have stepped up, you’re the TRUE ROCKSTARS. Your hard work, sacrifice, time, commitment, dedication, and fearlessness will NEVER go unnoticed.
THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!
One thing that’s keeping me sane is knowing how passionate the medical community is to beat this virus and find a cure! I can’t WAIT to hear those magic words come to fruition.
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While there’s a trilogy circulating in my head about everything we’re experiencing, I want to shift my energy. Moving forward, I’m going to cater my blog to useful information/resources surrounding the coronavirus in addition to eczema.
Stay safe. STAY HOME!