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Self-Isolation Day 49: Is This Almost Over or Do We Just Really Wish It Was?

Hope is a double-edged sword. It can help get us through difficult times, but it can also lure us into a false sense of security.

Some states are reopening. Some organizations have already set dates for their employees to return to the office despite the effectiveness and safety of remote work. Meanwhile, the number of COVID-19 cases and deaths in the US continues to climb with the tally currently at 1,219,066 confirmed cases and 73,297 confirmed deaths. I'd like to remind you again that each of those over 70 thousand deaths was a human being with a job, friends, and a family who cared about them but was unable to be at their side when they passed on. This isn't something we've won. This isn't something to celebrate. People are dead and continuing to die of this disease. This is an ongoing tragedy.

Of course I want to believe things are getting better. I want to believe that we've got this thing under control, but I want that to be true more than I want to believe it.

I hate being grim about this. I hate writing about how bad things are, but I feel like every single day I see or hear of an example of someone not taking this seriously, and what else can I do but stand on my little soapbox in my little corner of the world wide web and remind whoever's listening to stay the course? Stay the course. Keep your distance and don't go anywhere crowded and public unless absolutely necessary, and wear a damn mask when you do, if not for me or yourself then do it for the mother or father near you whose children don't want to grow up orphaned.
My partner and I have been watching The Good Place during our quarantine, and a concept from one of the episodes really connected with me–without giving anything away, the main characters are trying to seek justice from the good guys, but the good guys need to follow the rules to the letter in a manner that is excruciatingly slow while the bad guys continue to wreak havoc because they are by definition completely free from rules or moral limitations. It's presented in a humorous way, but the concept is so utterly demoralizing because it's so true to life: good things take time while bad things happen in an instant. Translated to human behavior: people who follow the rules get screwed over by people who do not.

That's what life is and that's what this pandemic is. It's good people following the rules and having their lives torn apart by those who do not. If we all follow the rules of social isolation we all benefit by getting back to "normal" relatively quickly. We come out of this thing stronger and indebted to one another for making small sacrifices for each other. However, if even a small group of people don't follow the rules, they can contract and spread the virus to those just trying to stay safe, potentially causing dozens if not hundreds of deaths while blissfully throwing a cocktail party with their like-minded friends and pushing "normal" out farther into the future for everyone. They get to socialize and pretend everything is fine while our loved ones suffer and die, and then they rub it in our faces by telling us that things were never really as bad as we claimed because nothing bad happened to them, personally. It makes my blood boil.

I'm so grateful that nothing bad has happened in my little bubble. I hope you have been and will continue to be just as fortunate. That said, the data is showing that, in the US at least, this pandemic is not almost over, no matter how much we wish it is.

Stay healthy and sane.
-Ryan
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