I recently witnessed an exchange between a potential shopper and a retail assistant at the door of an Op Shop, where the shopper was asked to please use the complimentary hand sanitiser at the doorway, which was a condition of entering the shop. The shop assistant was pleasant and polite, but the shopper backed up as though she had been asked to swallow razorblades with a bleach chaser.
The woman refused to use the sanitiser, claiming she never used it because she was not “buying into the fear”. When the shop assistant politely advised that using the sanitiser first was a condition of entry, the woman stomped off in a huff.
Right now the planet is not in a good place, health wise, and whether you believe the virus is a hoax, a conspiracy, an immune system killer via waves from the 5G satellites, or just plain evil dust being sprinkled on us from above by same, the fact remains that there is something out there and a lot of people around the world are dropping down dead when they contract it. Even those who recover are being left with after effects which will not necessarily go away.
So it’s not good.
Right, so you don’t believe there is a deadly virus out there. Okay, then feel free to have your like-minded friends all come to visit you, all at the same time, and you can all hug and party like there’s no tomorrow. That’s your prerogative. Chances are though, that one or more of them may have been exposed to and infected by another like-minded individual and before you know it, your tomorrows may be severely compromised or worse, definitely numbered, because you have all come down with what feels like the worst flu you can ever remember having…
Well you can’t say you weren’t warned.
If by some stroke of luck you all survive the defiant group hug in your own homes, that doesn’t let you off the hook when it comes to the general directives when you are outdoors, and if that directive includes keeping physically-distanced from others and using hand sanitiser, when asked, before you enter a premises, then what’s the problem? It’s not a biggie. The thousands of people dying around the globe are not dropping all at the same time from natural causes and no, it is not “just flu” either.
You see, despite what you may or may not believe, there are many others out there in your community who are taking COVID-19 a little more seriously. As a result they are following all the directives currently in place to protect themselves and others, and while it may be impacting their lives to a greater or lesser extent, depending on their circumstances, at least they are still alive and not threatening the lives of those around them.
It is not that difficult!
No one is asking us to leap through hoops of fire, do the razorblades and bleach thingy (okay, maybe someone I just can’t be bothered naming here did mention bleach), or lock ourselves up so securely as to never see the light of day again. Even at the peak of the threat, we could make a visit to the chemist or the supermarket. We could go out onto a balcony or into a backyard. Walk, cycle or jog around the block or the park. We were just asked to stay distant and make good with the hand sanitiser and keep our socialising to the phone, social media and Face Time, and if you think that has flushed your whole life down the toilet, then you might want to rethink your whole life.
As for the woman who refused to use the hand sanitiser and stomped off in a huff; perhaps that was a blessing because I don’t know whether it was her clothes, or her, or both, but she smelt like there had been no laundry or showering done in while. Quite a while to be honest, and I wondered whether not washing at all may have been part of her protest over the “fear” she was not “buying into”. I mean, general hygiene has always been a thing, not a request that has just popped up recently because we have all been asked to be more diligent about it. But hey, if you don’t want to wash yourself or your clothes or sanitise your hands, stay home.
Trust me, no one won’t miss you.