Freight trains, ice-water, sledgehammers; metaphorically describing how hard a wake-up call can hit somehow never does the actual experience justice. Wake up calls come in many different shapes and sizes, the hallmark of an individual can be seen in how they respond when one comes their way. Today, our society is experiencing a massive wake-up call by the name of COVID-19; our collective response has been extremely disappointing, to put it mildly.
The spread of this contagion has illuminated the divide in this country between people who get it, and people who don’t. If you went out to a crowded bar this past weekend and posted a picture of yourself on social media with some derivation of the caption “Social Distancing,” this message is for you:
You may not be suffering from coronavirus, but you are suffering from a major case of Head Up Your Ass(HUA). Those with HUA have many symptoms, such as disregarding global warming, littering, browsing Instagram in social settings rather than putting in the effort to converse like a human, etc. Those with the worst cases downplay the severity of a real, global emergency in an effort to accrue likes on social media––and then wonder why people hate millennials.
Many still seem unaware of why they are being asked to stay inside. It is not to prevent you from contracting the virus because you might die, it is to prevent you from contracting the virus, spreading it to others, and overwhelming our healthcare system to the point where it will be unable to provide hospital beds and resources to people like my grandma––who will die.
True happiness lays in our ability to perceive and feel the interconnectivity of all beings. If your ego is so big that you can’t go a weekend without drinking to appease it, let this virus be a big ol’ smack in the face. Pick up a hobby, appreciate your loved ones and learn how to meditate. The world is bigger than you––stay the fuck inside.
