By the time it’s over, whether via infection, vaccination or both, Covid-19 will have affected most of us, literally, on a cellular level.
Professionally, I’ve not been as bluntly impacted by the virus as many. I haven’t lost a job, a business, a livelihood… in many cases, an identity, a sense of purpose, a feeling of worth.
I don’t work on the frontlines in healthcare, so my identity, sense of purpose, feeling of worth, has not been tried and tested, ridiculed or despised. I have not had to share a shift with death, over and over and over again. For that, I am beyond grateful for myself, but more importantly, to others.
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My experiences with Covid-19 primarily remain at a cultural level: its politics, its impact on the way we work, learn, experience art… masking, social distancing. That said, I’m invariably intrigued by how the virus has exposed the way we react under duress; whether it be a reaction to policy or protocol, or the basic manner in which we treat others.
Equally intriguing is how – during this timeline just shy of a year – our attitude toward time itself may have changed: from relishing the slower pace life has forced upon us, to a sudden desire to hurry up and start living.
Who among us, in this past year, has examined the past under a microscope with one eye while viewing the future through a telescope with the other? All as we wait for God or science to save us from this pandemic nightmare.
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I got my first round of vaccine on Sunday.
I think the vaccine is important, and I trust the science behind it. But honestly? I didn’t get the vaccine for myself, because I was never afraid of getting Covid. In general, disease doesn’t scare me like it probably ought to… even breast cancer… I wasn’t so much scared by it, as I was exhausted.
I got the vaccine because I don’t want to spread Covid. I don’t want to be the reason someone else gets it and dies. And who knows? Maybe the very act of getting the vaccine will encourage others to do the same?
Now that would be a good thing.
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