Would you prefer to live 5 more years in isolation or be with your loved ones?
Not an easy question to pose yourself! No right answer! But hence this is the question that I’m asking myself at 3 am, when more measures are soon to be put into play. I have always tried to remove myself from the opinions and statistics of our current situation and just go with my business. BUT as I lie awake up at night I realise how this is really affecting me and those around me.
When you are fed statistics about: how many are infected?; how many deaths?; the rate at which it spreads? it becomes overwhelming or maybe even thinking it will not happen to you? until we become a part of that statistic. All the basis is around FEAR! Fear of our death and our family members. This is what controls us the basis of all our decisions and rightfully so! But should this be how we live our lives shying away from what is really important! LOVE……. at least for me! the love of family and friends. The connection of a hug, a kiss from a mother, a father, a grandparent, a friend. Yes we live in a world where we can keep ‘connected’ through the internet via video calls from numerous apps, but yet, does it FEEL the same?
Salud, dinero y amor that is what is commonly said when we give a ‘toast’, and rightly so! These contribute to the quality of our lives. Health; mentally and physically to be able to spend and appreciate the time we have with our loved ones. TIME is what we have in life, our currency, shouldn’t it be our decision on how we want to spend it? The problem is even if we live the most healthiest of lives we still do not know how much TIME we have. Yes, I believe every difficult decision is done for the best interest of the community but ultimately at what cost? The cost of our parents, grandparents being isolated with no physical interaction which in long term may have adverse effects.
Some rely on over 70s to take care of their children and we are grateful for alternative provisions to be put into place. But once again we are taking precious time away from what in most cases is a break in their mundane routine and keep them sane.
We are currently living in a time where anxiety is increasing exponentially and are we adding fuel to the problem? Does this ‘new normal’ mean that we let our children feel disconnected with older family members. Where books and cartoons are teaching our children on how to put masks on?
I understand we have to keep workforce going, to keep our economy going; we have to send our children to school for their education and sanity, but at the cost of sacrificing our vulnerable members of the community?
We have to keep the faith that the protocols in place remains advice and not lead to an enforced lockdown to our loved vulnerable family members. Are we capable as a society to use our common sense and be responsible for our own well being and avoid spreading?
“Treat every moment as a gift, that is why it is called the present” Deepak Chopra