Trying to place myself in Bob's shoes, all like Bob.
"The world got crazy for awhile. Everything was turned upside down. Everyone, everywhere understood from every source we ever encounter in a normal life, work, news, friends, shopping, entertainment, seemingly everyone, everywhere were telling us a really, really bad contagious disease …
Trying to place myself in Bob's shoes, all like Bob.
"The world got crazy for awhile. Everything was turned upside down. Everyone, everywhere understood from every source we ever encounter in a normal life, work, news, friends, shopping, entertainment, seemingly everyone, everywhere were telling us a really, really bad contagious disease was going around. Public health officials, doctors, everyone we trust to be nonpolitical were drilling the message home. The thing was bad, really bad, and we needed to do what we could to keep each other safe.
Sure, some information was coming in to contradict that, first, we knew we never took such extreme precautions before, so that was a shift away from the norm, common sense. So instead of questioning the need to shift away from the norm we decided to just accept that it was necessary, I mean who would make such a large demand of sacrifice unless it was worth it, right? So that first defense, common sense, was rationalized away for most, only the most rebellious types, risk-takers, the selfish, the foolish would ignore a serious threat and endanger others.
And those were the same ones we began hearing about the wrong-headedness of authorities, health officials, media, society. The same reckless disobedient types. And we're more responsible, caring people than them. Sure those people are fun to watch adventure, take risks in ordinary times, hear stories of adventure and pushing boundaries that we live vicariously through, sometimes even try pushing the boundaries ourselves, but this was different, this was serious, that frivolity was for normal times when there wasn't so much danger about us. So we saw them as just trying to justify their reckless disobedience. Ignore.
It didn't matter that every single thing that authorities said kept changing, they'd say one thing and then something else the next week. Every two weeks kept on becoming another two weeks, and another, and another. Every goalpost kept shifting further down the field. We saw public official after public official, media scold after media scold get caught breaking the rules we were dutifully following. Or trying to, at least. There were those occasions we let our guard down, so when we saw the hypocrisy we understood and excused it, we sometimes slipped up, too, it happens, they just live under a public eye and get caught. No big deal. Happens.
Then this long-promised and anticipated panacea comes along, a vaccine! The miracle vaccine that would let us get back to normal! Just get it and get back to living. But...everyone needs to get it. The dangerous virus was so evasive, so great a threat that the miracle vaccine wasn't going to work like most vaccines that protect me. No, this virus needed every single person in the world to take it. This virus even eluded natural immunity, one mean little spikey thing. And I'm over this whole sacrifice my lifestyle thing so I'm going to take it. And I want everyone hang out with, everyone I encounter...everyone to take it too. Because I'm f'n over it. And those same idiots, he selfish, rebellious risk takers, the disobedient fools aren't taking the damn shot. I'm f'n over them. I'm done with them, they're bad people, don't need people like that in my life. And it serves them right if they get sick and nobody wants them around. Let them order in and shop by mail. They deserve it.
Weird times continue, much longer than authorities told us. Most everyone is jabbed up like they were supposed to. The same fools I now hate are still going about life, but I hate them, things still aren't totally back to normal. Now I see those idiots telling everyone how dangerous the shots were and the people dying suddenly are dying from the shots. Nobody I know has died from the shots. I'm ok. Sure, we all get sick a lot, but that's normal. The people dying, that always happened, we just weren't paying attention before. More lies from those bad people telling us the shots are bad. I really don't like them.
More time passes. Now more people around me are dying. Young people. People who are diagnosed with something one day and dead the next. It's sad. But, that's normal, right? Always been normal. I just never noticed, right? But it keeps happening. And I keep getting sick all the time. It's never really bad, but I never got sick so often. I wonder if it's because those anti-vaxxers never got their jabs? Yeah, that's it, we're still dealing with people getting sick and dying all the time because of them! But...not many people are dying from the virus. It's all different things, heart attacks, cancer, stroke. Weird.
Well, at least I'm ok, my family is OK. Except Uncle Willy...and cousin Lois, and the neighbor's kid. And a lot of people I know lost older parents. Sure is sad. Seems to be happening more often now. But, we're all getting older, these things happen. And it tragic to see what's happening with younger people. I guess it's always happened, I just never paid attention. They say things happen in three's, this too will pass.
So, it's been awhile, life is pretty much back to normal. I ran into Mick the other day. I really hated him for how flippant he was when we needed to come together and protect one another from the bad, bad virus. But, bygones be bygones, I'm curious to hear how he's doing, catch up. It's been crazy times. Hope we don't talk about pandemic stuff, I might go off on him.
So I'm here with him. all's good. Uh-oh, here comes pandemic talk. Oh boy, now he's telling me about people dying from the vaccines. Of course he would. He's in so much denial, grasping at straws. I'm not going to lose my cool, I'll just ignore him, placate him, he'll eventually shut up about it and move on. Oh boy, now he's telling me everyone who took it might have a ticking time bomb in them and end up dying suddenly like the stories I'm noticing. No way! Nope. Not going there. I can't hear you. Nah, nah, nah, nah! I'm so over it, him. It'll be awhile before I subject myself to his crazy conspiracy stuff again.
Much better people, more caring, educated, reasonable, normal people than Mick said it was safe. And effective. Maybe it wasn't as effective as they said, they were hopeful. But it was safe...mostly...and I'm ok. Most people I know are ok. A few not so much. But, there's always risk for anything new. And it had to be done. Or we never would've been able to get back to normal. That bad, bad, very bad virus would've killed millions, billions if we didn't get the vax. A few were harmed, for the greater good.
Let's just forget about it, quit trying to blame anyone for anything, it was crazy times, let's all move on, can we?"
And for Bob and all the Bob's, who wants to hear they may have a ticking time bomb in them. That they put inside them. Bad news from the Mick's, no matter how truthful it turns out to be is just too unpleasant to contemplate for most. Those who are capable of reconnecting with their logic would want to know so they could do what they can to mitigate the problem, to address any ticking time bomb they unwittingly, trustingly took in. Those who are stuck in their emotional thought processes don't want to know. What they don't know can't hurt them, and if they come to know it would scare them, paralyze them. "Nah, nah, nah, nah, I can't hear you."
That's where we're at, folks. What it's like in Bob's shoes. We love and care about these people. We want to reach them, help them, let them know there are things they can do to protect themselves from any ticking time bombs that may lurk within. But how we do it, our patience, our creativity, our compassion, our tenacity, all of those are challenged if we choose to take on the hard work it is. It may be an impossible task. But if we love someone enough...it ain't easy.
I like your diplomacy but all we need to do to put ourselves in Bob's shoes is to stick our heads in the sand and follow the media bullhorn like all the rest of them. It's too sad.
Trying to place myself in Bob's shoes, all like Bob.
"The world got crazy for awhile. Everything was turned upside down. Everyone, everywhere understood from every source we ever encounter in a normal life, work, news, friends, shopping, entertainment, seemingly everyone, everywhere were telling us a really, really bad contagious disease was going around. Public health officials, doctors, everyone we trust to be nonpolitical were drilling the message home. The thing was bad, really bad, and we needed to do what we could to keep each other safe.
Sure, some information was coming in to contradict that, first, we knew we never took such extreme precautions before, so that was a shift away from the norm, common sense. So instead of questioning the need to shift away from the norm we decided to just accept that it was necessary, I mean who would make such a large demand of sacrifice unless it was worth it, right? So that first defense, common sense, was rationalized away for most, only the most rebellious types, risk-takers, the selfish, the foolish would ignore a serious threat and endanger others.
And those were the same ones we began hearing about the wrong-headedness of authorities, health officials, media, society. The same reckless disobedient types. And we're more responsible, caring people than them. Sure those people are fun to watch adventure, take risks in ordinary times, hear stories of adventure and pushing boundaries that we live vicariously through, sometimes even try pushing the boundaries ourselves, but this was different, this was serious, that frivolity was for normal times when there wasn't so much danger about us. So we saw them as just trying to justify their reckless disobedience. Ignore.
It didn't matter that every single thing that authorities said kept changing, they'd say one thing and then something else the next week. Every two weeks kept on becoming another two weeks, and another, and another. Every goalpost kept shifting further down the field. We saw public official after public official, media scold after media scold get caught breaking the rules we were dutifully following. Or trying to, at least. There were those occasions we let our guard down, so when we saw the hypocrisy we understood and excused it, we sometimes slipped up, too, it happens, they just live under a public eye and get caught. No big deal. Happens.
Then this long-promised and anticipated panacea comes along, a vaccine! The miracle vaccine that would let us get back to normal! Just get it and get back to living. But...everyone needs to get it. The dangerous virus was so evasive, so great a threat that the miracle vaccine wasn't going to work like most vaccines that protect me. No, this virus needed every single person in the world to take it. This virus even eluded natural immunity, one mean little spikey thing. And I'm over this whole sacrifice my lifestyle thing so I'm going to take it. And I want everyone hang out with, everyone I encounter...everyone to take it too. Because I'm f'n over it. And those same idiots, he selfish, rebellious risk takers, the disobedient fools aren't taking the damn shot. I'm f'n over them. I'm done with them, they're bad people, don't need people like that in my life. And it serves them right if they get sick and nobody wants them around. Let them order in and shop by mail. They deserve it.
Weird times continue, much longer than authorities told us. Most everyone is jabbed up like they were supposed to. The same fools I now hate are still going about life, but I hate them, things still aren't totally back to normal. Now I see those idiots telling everyone how dangerous the shots were and the people dying suddenly are dying from the shots. Nobody I know has died from the shots. I'm ok. Sure, we all get sick a lot, but that's normal. The people dying, that always happened, we just weren't paying attention before. More lies from those bad people telling us the shots are bad. I really don't like them.
More time passes. Now more people around me are dying. Young people. People who are diagnosed with something one day and dead the next. It's sad. But, that's normal, right? Always been normal. I just never noticed, right? But it keeps happening. And I keep getting sick all the time. It's never really bad, but I never got sick so often. I wonder if it's because those anti-vaxxers never got their jabs? Yeah, that's it, we're still dealing with people getting sick and dying all the time because of them! But...not many people are dying from the virus. It's all different things, heart attacks, cancer, stroke. Weird.
Well, at least I'm ok, my family is OK. Except Uncle Willy...and cousin Lois, and the neighbor's kid. And a lot of people I know lost older parents. Sure is sad. Seems to be happening more often now. But, we're all getting older, these things happen. And it tragic to see what's happening with younger people. I guess it's always happened, I just never paid attention. They say things happen in three's, this too will pass.
So, it's been awhile, life is pretty much back to normal. I ran into Mick the other day. I really hated him for how flippant he was when we needed to come together and protect one another from the bad, bad virus. But, bygones be bygones, I'm curious to hear how he's doing, catch up. It's been crazy times. Hope we don't talk about pandemic stuff, I might go off on him.
So I'm here with him. all's good. Uh-oh, here comes pandemic talk. Oh boy, now he's telling me about people dying from the vaccines. Of course he would. He's in so much denial, grasping at straws. I'm not going to lose my cool, I'll just ignore him, placate him, he'll eventually shut up about it and move on. Oh boy, now he's telling me everyone who took it might have a ticking time bomb in them and end up dying suddenly like the stories I'm noticing. No way! Nope. Not going there. I can't hear you. Nah, nah, nah, nah! I'm so over it, him. It'll be awhile before I subject myself to his crazy conspiracy stuff again.
Much better people, more caring, educated, reasonable, normal people than Mick said it was safe. And effective. Maybe it wasn't as effective as they said, they were hopeful. But it was safe...mostly...and I'm ok. Most people I know are ok. A few not so much. But, there's always risk for anything new. And it had to be done. Or we never would've been able to get back to normal. That bad, bad, very bad virus would've killed millions, billions if we didn't get the vax. A few were harmed, for the greater good.
Let's just forget about it, quit trying to blame anyone for anything, it was crazy times, let's all move on, can we?"
And for Bob and all the Bob's, who wants to hear they may have a ticking time bomb in them. That they put inside them. Bad news from the Mick's, no matter how truthful it turns out to be is just too unpleasant to contemplate for most. Those who are capable of reconnecting with their logic would want to know so they could do what they can to mitigate the problem, to address any ticking time bomb they unwittingly, trustingly took in. Those who are stuck in their emotional thought processes don't want to know. What they don't know can't hurt them, and if they come to know it would scare them, paralyze them. "Nah, nah, nah, nah, I can't hear you."
That's where we're at, folks. What it's like in Bob's shoes. We love and care about these people. We want to reach them, help them, let them know there are things they can do to protect themselves from any ticking time bombs that may lurk within. But how we do it, our patience, our creativity, our compassion, our tenacity, all of those are challenged if we choose to take on the hard work it is. It may be an impossible task. But if we love someone enough...it ain't easy.
I like your diplomacy but all we need to do to put ourselves in Bob's shoes is to stick our heads in the sand and follow the media bullhorn like all the rest of them. It's too sad.