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Not Seeing

Read this story about how the pandemic is unfolding in America and this is one of many. Some from well-known sources others like this one that takes a graph and create a narrative around it. Hard to discern fact from outrage in most cases as the lines blur very quickly. But compared it to the sights I see walking around the part of town where people are back social fitnessing and getting together to laugh, eat and drink,all of the writing seems to be about another universe. Many wear masks and many don't from what I see. This is not the same reality that is being written about and definitely not how people are experiencing it. Over time, we seem to grow lax about the safety measures that are being advocated or descend into germophobic paranoia as is the case with my parents. When I hear about their daily cleanse routines, I am in total awe but do understand where it comes from. My mother has taken it upon herself to be the mask police in her small community. She is scolding young people for not taking it seriously and putting the elderly at risk. 

The elderly feel like the world is moving on for better or worse. Things will unravel in ways they cannot imagine and certainly cannot control. The only agency they have left is over how they manage their lives - what safety precautions they take each day to stay out of harm's way. One older couple I know has decided to stay in atleast until the end of August as a precaution as the number of cases in their state climbs. If there is a tsunami out there is it hard for the ordinary person to understand and I count those like me among them - we are not reckless and are being as careful as can be and yet the reality of this has not registered. People like me do what they are advised to do because not doing so seems irresponsible. It is not yet coming from a place of deep fear.

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