During the month of April, I’m writing 30 Words for 30 Days: Thoughts from Six Feet Away, one topic per day. Find out why here.
“QUESTIONS”
This probably won’t be a popular post (though I’m not quite sure how that would separate it from the others 😉).
So, I’ll just get right to it.
Questions are an interesting thing in our society.
When we’re little, we ask a lot of questions.
No matter which word wins the title of “first word” for us, the word “why” is usually not far behind.
The average toddler can probably out “why” anyone.
They’re able to rattle off so many whys in a given day that parents are just left stunned, speechless and exhausted.
It’s no wonder that the parental recourse is to squelch the questions with answers like “because” and the silent treatment (which doesn’t actually seem to work).
But one way or another, the ability to question is beaten out of us somewhere early in life and we resign to just accepting things.
Couple that with a culture that is increasingly closed to respectful back-and-forth and you it makes it even tougher to question… when those questions are frowned upon.
Questions For A Hypothetical Country In Quarantine
That’s why I’m not going to address my questions to our general public, but to a hypothetical country in quarantine… due to a hypothetical virus.
I’m sure you have plenty of questions as well. Here are some of mine… hypothetically…
Why did this all have to happen? Is there a conspiracy? Was it from a lab? Or just a random bat biting somebody and spreading?
Why is this time so different from other viruses and epidemics in the past?
What are the limitations of the state and federal government for dictating how we live, what closes and doesn’t, etc? I really had no idea it could happen like that with things just being forced to close in a snap.
What data and sources and models and research can you really trust as far as what the spread will actually look like?
If we were supposed to peak much higher and later and it looks like we actually have flattened the curve, what will the next steps look like? Can we begin to go back to things sooner?
I wonder what our country will look like a year from now? What will the after affects be from shuttered businesses and even from the stimulus bill that didn’t just come from nowhere?
Is it wrong to think that we need to try to get the economy and businesses back up and running sooner than later?
Is it wrong to think that you can ask that question and still care for the lives of those hit with the virus? I have two parents and a sister who would be vulnerable and I don’t want anything to happen to them, but I also want them to have a society six months from now that hasn’t been run into the ground.
Would anyone from February 2020 have ever believed where we would be in two short months?
When will CNN start just reporting on the news and not exclusively bashing everything Trump does? I’m not a big Trump supporter, but 90% of CNN alerts I see have his name in the title. Last I checked, there were things going on in our country and with the virus not involved with him.
Why did this have to happen to this years seniors (including my son Eli)?
Do schools have any chance of opening back up this year? What will happen to graduation? Will there be a tiny spring sports season or none at all?
When will professional sports return? What will they be like without fans? When will fans be able to return? How many?
I wonder how many small businesses won’t be able to make it out of this? How much talent and love and passion and vision and creativity will have been wiped out through this shutdown? Who will be able to pivot? Who won’t?
How many people thought that one day they’d be wearing a mask in public? At work? At the store?
When will they find a vaccine?
When will more testing be available?Â
When will more antibody testing be available? If you test positive and can prove it, does that allow you to get back into normal life or be immune?
Why is it so hard to be civil in our society? If someone even speaks about starting the economy back up they instantly don’t care about all those who are dying. If someone is hyper about staying home, they don’t care about the economy.
One thing I hope we can all do better at is ask questions respectfully, offer what answers and ideas we have respectfully, and together move toward both keeping people safe and regaining our economic footing in this… hypothetical… country.
