April 8, 2021

I went down the rabbit hole again. I hate it when that happens. It was almost uncontrollable, my desire to engage on facebook drew me in and I found it very hard to retreat. This time it was the video posted from the restaurant in Vancouver. People chanted “Get out!” at the poor people just trying to do their jobs.

A job nobody wants.

Nobody wants to tell the poor restaurants they can’t serve people inside. How heart-wrenching it must be to deal with people that are struggling to survive. Having people deride them and attack them, yell at them, must make it 100 times worse.

Things have been getting ugly in the real world. In facebook land, things are 100 times worse.

When I saw the video of those wretched people in the restaurant I couldn’t help but comment. I say they are wretched not because they are bad people or evil people. They are all tired people and must feel pretty bad to go so low as to chant someone out of a place. The health officials must have felt awful as well. I have witnessed new lows and it saddens me we can’t pull together as humanity and unite to defeat the real foe. The viral foe, both biological and digital.

Commenting on facebook wasn’t the answer. It was a way to engage that had no clear winner and no easy answer. I got engaged alright. I guess I shouldn’t have called them covidiots… but that was how they looked to me in the heat of the moment. I said my piece and made my case, I thought I was being clear that we need to unite and be kind to each other. Of course how nice was I being by calling people covidiots.

Not so nice.

I didn’t want to be a keyboard warrior spouting off in the digitalverse. Somehow I found myself getting upset, getting angry. So did the other people there, strangers I have never met. They didn’t hold back on their vitriol because I didn’t think the same way as they did about the pandemic. When did so many people in this world become so full of anger and hate?

None of us want to be in lockdown. We all want our freedoms back. Some people think lockdowns are the answer, some think the virus is a hoax. Fine, believe what you want but don’t attack other people that don’t agree. Right now our healthcare system is designed to protect us. It’s decided the best way to protect us is with restrictions on movement, masks, and vaccines. That is the system we have and it is the same across the globe. Why fight it?

Why fight each other?

This will end, and when it does the world will party like it was the roaring twenties once more. History has repeated itself for thousands of years. With all our wonderful technology I hope that we can survive and thrive in the twenties and beyond.

It takes everyone to find a bit of patience. We all have to find some understanding, most importantly we have to find a bit of kindness. I know I have to connect with that part of myself every day. Our world is a better place when we have these things.

It’s too easy to fall into the rabbit hole, especially when we have to sit home in isolation. After a year of this pandemic and the end in sight, I need to find a way to connect with the real world again. I hope to do more walks and plant the garden. I hope we can plant seeds for better days ahead.