This isn’t about the pandemic but…
The pandemic exposed something shocking.
It had nothing to do with the virus, the vaccines, or another thing I can’t think of that started with a ‘v’.
It had everything to do with us.
When the doctors, scientists and generally super smart people said at various stages of the pandemic that they simply didn’t know what the exact right things to do were yet, a lot of us lost their shit.
Even worse, when they finally did know what the right things to do were but then followed them up with a caveat of what amounted to “listen, this seems like the right thing to do but it’s not guaranteed though and we’re not totally sure and it might not always work”, the rest of us revved up our bad habits…
.
.
.
(sorry had to refill my wine…. relax, I’m writing this on Saturday evening) to help cope with the uncertainty.
Most of us know that science is always in a state of flux, so we cut the experts and ourselves some slack. We’d take the few absolutes we could get and just pretend the other floaty bits were going to end up being okay hopefully.
The pandemic was a global event unlike any of us alive today (barring a handful of really, really old people) have experienced.
It was day after day of uncertainty.
Many absolutes were revealed as nothing more than fallacies of tradition.
However, we don’t operate well in a world without absolutes. Fallacy or not.
We rely on absolutes, at least the concept of them, to operate life in a way that doesn’t require a lot of really tiring thinking and evaluating, for example, before we’ve had our coffee in the morning.
If the stairs you take down to the kitchen every morning suddenly decided they’d had enough of only going up or down and now wanted to do both at the same time, it would probably be unsettling.
A world without at least some assumed absolutes is daunting.
After a few years where everything we felt certain about seemed to suddenly be thrown in the air and up for discussion, it stands to reason that people are desperate to re-establish old absolutes and some are maybe trying to make a few new sketchy ones while they’re at it.
This point in history is transphobes, homophobes, racists and religious bigots’ time to shine.
It’s like a land grab for people who mine terribleness.
To be clear, I’m not excusing any reprehensible behaviour.
Dickheads are dickheads.
What I am saying is that we need to get comfortable with the nature’s lack of absolutes… and make fun of those that demand them.
The pandemic robbed us of a lot. You know that.
One of the biggest things it seemed like it took was certainty.
It didn’t.
We never really had it.
Life is not certain.
Like is uncertainty.
Life has no absolutes.
Life is untidy.
Life is a little bit of this and a little bit of that.
Life only gets exciting and inspiring when its uncertain.
Life only gets better when we realize everyone is on a spectrum of everything.
Life doesn’t care about us, but we can care about each other.
And that’s absolutely true.
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I think we should call you Hammer, because you hit the nail on the head!
I have a science background (although I'm old enough to remember when the Periodic table only had 4 elements (earth, air ... ). I'm used to the "intellectual uncertainty" that Science demands and I didn't get upset at all with the Covid response of the scientists. I DID get mad at politicians' responses and was often disappointed at the public's reactions.
I still wear a mask in stores etc. Whether Covid is still a threat or not... and our sewage says it is, I enjoy foiling those facial recognition cameras that the govmint is running. (If you don't believe that, just ask around on Facebook or Twitter !!!!!) ;~)
It’s really hard to admit that we don’t know what’s going on. I know for myself, it makes me afraid. And when I’m afraid, I’m uncomfortable. I run for that morning coffee. It’s a little bit of certainty in my hand. I try not to think too hard of all the things I love that may be lost, that may already be lost. Sometimes I just sit and pet my dog, while the cat purrs making biscuits in my lap, customizing whatever I’m wearing with little picks and stabs. Fear is a funny thing. It makes me run and hide from uncomfortable truths, from not knowing. I make things up. I think we all do. Sing some little songs to quiet the aching in my chest. I don’t know what’s going on. The world often feels unrecognizable, like we’ve turned down some unexpected path that leads into murk. All I can do is try to be kind.