Crisis Unblocked

I keep saying to myself, I need to put my thoughts down. And while I have so much to say about the current events beyond regurgitated memes and Twitter screenshots - I also have nothing to say that likely hasn’t already been said. I haven’t written in so long, for many reasons. But mainly because I am no expert in anything, my thoughts are just that. Inspiration historically came via desperation. Previously have joked about only writing when I have a broken heart. Romantically speaking. The truth is my heart is broken. My heart is breaking for humanity. All the time and energy we have spent criticizing one another for our differences, the powers at be in a tug of war - While our city suffers. Our ideologies have overshadowed what we claim to want to protect. This year has shown no mercy. This godforsaken virus has attacked everywhere and without discrimination. But the reality is that while we are all equal, the circumstances in which a person lives in - the how, when and where they fall ill will not be. The risk of someone catching COVID while working at a supermarket, shopping and packing my pick-up is not lost on me. She may be a single mom, putting up with all the shit that is retail during a motherfucking pandemic just to stay afloat. Without knowing one another - she is risking her life, so I do not have to. And I think, what more can I do? My lower self would say: limiting my trips to the store, being one less person is helpful. My business helps create jobs - I am participating in the economy. While that might be true, what happens when she does get sick? Quarantine time means no pay check, maybe she has no health insurance… A woman in her 40s passed away recently of COVID. I know nothing about her - but that she was in my age group. Potentially, both her parents and her children could be mourning the loss of their child and mother. I have not lost either, though I imagine these are amongst, if not the hardest to endure. Without taking away from the emotional heaviness of mourning, the socioeconomic and psychosocial imbalance now shifted in that family unit can be one so great they may never recover. The ripple effects, seismic waves changing the landscape of this very place we call home.