Stay Healthy
I've been sending texts and emails the past week and it felt weird to not address the situation happening around us. But I felt a little weird the first few messages because my intuition for some reason was to sign off with a "stay safe" signature. Stay safe, from what??
The current environment makes it feel like that's the right thing to say, though, with people hoarding toilet paper, and buying extreme amounts of food I know they can't finish1, as if every biblical plague was about to happen. But that's not the case. I know that there's not going to be a food shortage, I know we're not going to run out of toilet paper (since unless you use it, what's the use in getting more). There are a lot of things I know, yet with the way everyone's behaving, I have also felt the fear of some imminent danger: the unknown.
So when I say "stay safe", who or what was I implying we stay safe from? Each other? I think I'll start losing a lot more hope in humanity if that's really what we need to worry about, especially at a time we really need to be thinking more about each other and helping. We're not self-isolating so that we don't get sick (and by we, I mean the healthy and able-bodied), but instead so that we don't risk getting those most susceptible sick.
If I feel like I know anything at all for a fact, I think it would be that being fearful is almost as unhealthy as being physically sick. So, for the next few weeks, as much as I am struggling myself with the various aspects of the situation we're in, I'll encourage myself and others to Stay Healthy.
1This is the Bay Area, after all, and I'm pretty sure half the people hoarding groceries seriously don't know how to cook half of what they're buying, much less before it rots. Am I being cynical? Maybe, but I've definitely had tech friends tell me they haven't touched their kitchen in months...
The current environment makes it feel like that's the right thing to say, though, with people hoarding toilet paper, and buying extreme amounts of food I know they can't finish1, as if every biblical plague was about to happen. But that's not the case. I know that there's not going to be a food shortage, I know we're not going to run out of toilet paper (since unless you use it, what's the use in getting more). There are a lot of things I know, yet with the way everyone's behaving, I have also felt the fear of some imminent danger: the unknown.
So when I say "stay safe", who or what was I implying we stay safe from? Each other? I think I'll start losing a lot more hope in humanity if that's really what we need to worry about, especially at a time we really need to be thinking more about each other and helping. We're not self-isolating so that we don't get sick (and by we, I mean the healthy and able-bodied), but instead so that we don't risk getting those most susceptible sick.
If I feel like I know anything at all for a fact, I think it would be that being fearful is almost as unhealthy as being physically sick. So, for the next few weeks, as much as I am struggling myself with the various aspects of the situation we're in, I'll encourage myself and others to Stay Healthy.
1This is the Bay Area, after all, and I'm pretty sure half the people hoarding groceries seriously don't know how to cook half of what they're buying, much less before it rots. Am I being cynical? Maybe, but I've definitely had tech friends tell me they haven't touched their kitchen in months...
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