New World, Same Complaints…

Maybe I’m beginning to get cynical in my old age. Maybe the weight of constantly hearing people complain about different things that are either petty, old news or should be put on the back burner while the world deals with more important issues such as, oh, I don’t know…. Getting some level of normalcy back in place and work on increasing people’s vaccination and reopening society! But people in general have a tendency to focus their attention on some of the right things, granted at the wrong times.

The world has changed significantly since the first reference to COVID-19 struck my ears. Ironically, I received my first news on the subject from the most unlikely source: my mother. My wife and I don’t have cable television and hold no subscriptions to any publications, per say. So we’re reasonably cut off from mainstream media, short of whatever trickles we get through Facebook or the city website.

In a phone conversation with my mother in late March of 2020, she commented by saying, “Oh, those poor people in China with that awful virus…. And I’ve heard that it’s reached Canada as some people have brought it over through their travels…”. At the time, I thought along the same lines as many others likely have; that it was something isolated, far away and wouldn’t affect my household and I, in any significant way. I was wrong. Boy, was I wrong!

Self-isolation, quarantines and working from home became commonplace. Online shopping for everything from home appliances to commodities and even one’s groceries became the new standard and for a while there, the world came to a standstill and you could hear the silence of nature, even in a city the size of mine. There was some positive to it, from my perspective. The reduced noise and air pollution was nice. And since I’ve always been of the opinion that people should distance themselves from one another while in public, for varying reasons, so I’ve been a big fan of the 6-foot rule.

For a while, a long while, it seemed as though people’s complaints surrounded the pertinent issues. The wearing of masks, sanitizing their hands, not being permitted inside certain locations WITHOUT a mask, the buyout of hand sanitizer and toilet paper…. you know, things that pertained to the pandemic. But as time has passed and the pandemic is showing some signs of potentially lessening, if not coming to an end, people are starting to come out of the woodwork to complain about matters that, as I said earlier, should wait until the world is back to normal or focused on once the important things are dealt with, first.

In most cases, I’m somewhat biased, since my preferred method of “live and let live” has very little room left in today’s day-to-day dynamic, mixed with the immediate access to the world’s information, social media and everyone having a protected opinion and getting offended by everyone and everything. In fact, this is why I won’t even explain what precise situations have me on my rant, this morning. I’m going to satisfy myself with a rant and then go back to “live and let live.”

But as the world starts clawing it’s way back to what the next generation will come to consider “normal,” a few thoughts for your to consider, dear reader. Life moves forward. This is a universal rule, one which applies quite aptly in this instance. There’s no going back and we are meant to LEARN fro past mistakes, not focus on them and make them the focal point of society and force obligations that belonged to those who came before us. It’s important not to forget past mistakes. After all, those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it. But as we walk into the dawn of a new world, one in which we overcame the current pandemic, let’s remember to take the opportunity to focus on the future. Good for thought. ☯️