For those of you who might live in parts of the U.S. outside of California… you might not understand this post. Know that I am sincerely envious of you…
For Californians who’ve been locked up, masked up, scared of breathing perfectly fine air if you happen to walk past someone on the street, IT’S TIME TO STOP.
Or, should I instead say: GO.
GO to the friends’ house. GO to the parents’ house. GO to the restaurant. GO to the kids’ carline without a mask on in your own vehicle. GO to the hotel with some of your favorite people — as long as everyone is healthy — whether or not you happen to live with them.
I’ve been. Since July (2020). Mask on in the grocery store because I’m too tired to argue with the misinformed woke manager [who’s self-admittedly too lazy to actually read CDC data] while picking up milk and bananas. Mask off on my walks, runs, in my car, with friends and family, meandering through mostly-outdoor hotels. Oh, there was that indoor baby shower and Christmas celebrations and funeral and brunch inside a restaurant that is rightfully standing up against all government overreached nonsense… no masks. So far we’re all fine after several weeks. Here’s hoping…
This last weekend yielded a beyond-needed (and beyond-hilarious — we couldn’t stop laughing) girls weekend at one of our favorite beachside hotels — pretty drinks, decadent meals, too much shared cheese platters, massages with a therapist/nurse who ranted to me about how egregious all the CA closures and guidelines still are after one year. Five of us together. Like real life people and not weird unthinking robots the government has now evidently turned once-normal folks into. We went shopping. We went to bars. We went to restaurants.
Try it. Overcome the fear. Overcome your fear. Do it in baby steps. Take the mask off when you go on a walk and talk to your neighbor on the corner. You can stand 6 feet away, all good. Let your kids play at a playground with other children without smothering up their tiny faces in the fresh, moving air. Spray their hands before and after and make sure no one has symptoms or a fever before heading out.
Stop the fear. Stop your fear. Think, react, behave accordingly. With reason. Because fear the REAL pandemic here… the disease that isn’t readily minimized with a new and rushed-through vaccine. It’s fear that is killing our kids’ whether some people want to admit it or not. (And no, don’t twist that to say I am anti-vaccine — some of my most loved people got the vaccine and I’m glad they did, because their actual risk according to real science warranted it.)
Use common sense and real science according to demographical data, case studies as they pertain to your individualized health risk and personal experiences from those of us who’ve been offering ourselves as real-life, real-time guinea pigs for the sake of saving your sanity, society and our country at large. We’ve been working as usual and living life reasonably — while washing hands and not breathing into others’ faces — yet so many deny we’re still here.
GO. Somewhere. DO. Something. Order the cocktails together (with folks you don’t live with) and sip them while spaced apart and smiling. I dare you. You just might feel human again. And that’s the first step towards true good health.
This does not mean that I haven’t known anyone who has dealt with Covid-19 on a very, very, VERY serious level. I have. I do. My heart panicked when it was happening to folks I care deeply about in real time. I worried. I prayed. I never thought this disease was a hoax — never. But, the world can no longer be shut down. People can no longer be shut down. I don’t say this to be heartless. I say this because it is a hard truth.
Because the longer one lives in irrational fear, the more likely one will never recover from it. Be brave. You can. For our children. It’s TIME. Go. xo
