Friday 4 December 2020

Holding Up the Towers

We have had so many 9/11s-worth of deaths due to coronavirus here in the US. If you have ever posted in remembrance of those lost in the Twin Towers, but persist in spreading fatal idiocy about this damned plague: leave my life. 

My family has been hit, and trying to protect our elders has remained an ever-present thrum, with some successes and some painful losses. 

I have friends getting sick. Some were knocked down for months. It's not just deaths, which are awful enough, but disability and suffering, too. Trying to keep children healthy, trying to parent when we can barely breathe, watching fevers spike and knowing that hospitals are overwhelmed. 

As with all things American, the fractures of our society are illuminated further by this crisis. Damn the incessant conspiracy-mongering nonsense, the can't-be-told attitudes, the anti-science tantrums! People are dying, especially the people who are always most vulnerable in our society. 

If your family hasn't lost somebody yet, there's still time. It's hard to keep holding back, and we all mess up. But, right now, our cock-ups kill. 

There is so much to mourn. I'm grateful for the encounters with friends and family that have lifted my spirits, phone calls and video visits that make it all more bearable. 

I don't want to lose anyone else. We're all in these towers, folks, and it's actually up to us to hold them up. 

Masks on, chins up, eyes intermittently dry, hands freshly washed. Let's hunker down and get to the other side of this nightmare so we can rebuild something much better.




No comments:

Post a Comment