Life Goes On

Smiling blond girl with missing tooth. Photo by crimfants.

Throughout the world, there are two stories which are consuming all of the attention: coronavirus and stocks. Local skirmishes and political machinations, entertainment events and sports are all generally on hold as people deal with concerns about the virus.

Tom Hanks personalized it for some; for others, it’s been the infection or death of prominent individuals in their national government. President Bolsonaro’s Press Secretary in Brazil has tested positive. Prime Minister Trudeau’s wife in Canada has been confirmed to have the virus. The head of Italy’s medical association has died from covid-19. Iran’s leadership has an array of infected people. The list continues, and is ever-growing.

It’s almost inevitable that politicians, whose stock in trade is public gatherings and who have been trained to touch others in an effort to increase the perception of honesty, would be highly susceptible to the novel coronavirus. For a change, they are providing a valuable public service by becoming examples. The disease is out there, it’s dangerous, and precautions must be taken.

Amidst it all, though, life continues. If there is any time which exemplifies the split between news and general life, this should be it. While precautions must be taken and events are cancelled, we are still eating meals every day, watching television or reading (we have to do something without the events), planting flowers, playing board games and generally interacting with those around us. People are still contracting cancer and beating the flu.

Fear abounds right now, but it can’t be paralyzing and it can’t be allowed to induce panic. We need to find the balance between irrational overreaction and irrational underreaction, and the only way to do that is to accept that there is some level of danger simply in existing, and to recognize that we can mitigate our exposure to treats but we can’t really eliminate it. This is done through intellectual curiosity and through honest risk assessment.

We can do this. As annoying and frightening as the disease may be, we still know the basics about it and we’re learning more every day. We’ll get through, we just have to keep our wits about us.

Enjoy your weekend, and I hope the stock market ends the week on an upswing.

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About AlienMotives 1991 Articles
Ex-Navy Reactor Operator turned bookseller. Father of an amazing girl and husband to an amazing wife. Tired of willful political blindness, but never tired of politics. Hopeful for the future.