A lot of people are irritated and/or angry that I am so flippant about the virus and lockdown. Some are so furious that they unfriended me and others, like my bff are so mad they don't want to see me anymore! I understand that is mostly because they are so fearful of this feardemic and martial law that they are unable to find humor in it. But what I'm really doing is challenging you to get out of your head and view it not as a participant but as an observer because when you are able to do that you can become more objective, and when you become more objective you will see how crippling fear can be.
I was reminded of this yesterday on my way to a Barbecue 40 miles away. This is a yearly event so I had their favorite items, Green Beans a la Facebook Cafe and Peanut Butter Chocolate Cake safely tucked away in the hatch. It was a perfect summer day and we were experiencing a day on the road more pleasant than most. We were approximately 20 miles from our destination when a dark ominous cloud suddenly make its appearance on the horizon. Five minutes later without warning a huge deluge enveloped us. We went from full visibility to none save two faint taillights ahead of us. There were vehicles surrounding us but we couldn't see them. After an interminable period of time, the veil of rain lifted and the vehicles in front of us were at a dead stop. Mr Kulp braked his best and as he did, I observed a car and a tractor trailer beside us in slow motion moving out of control until they collided and the truck, narrowly avoiding us with the back end of its load on its slow descent down the embankment, We successfully stopped as did the cars in front of us, however approximately 8 lengths in front of us they were not as fortunate. When the dust settled and we were able to get out of our cars, what we observed ahead of us was a 5 truck tractor trailer mashup, the front two facing each other, along with a few minor car casualties. Amazingly nobody was seriously injured. As we sat there anticipating the next move I noticed the traffic on the opposite side of the divided highway moving at a crawling pace so i exited the vehicle to see if there was an accident on the other side of the highway, but there wasn't. Why on earth were those looky-loos endangering all those other drivers behind them so they could ogle a terrible accident? It made no sense to me, and there behavior still has me irritated today. I can't tell you how long we sat there waiting for them to clean up enough of the mess for us to go but I can tell you that we missed out exit during the deluge so we had to turn around, but by the time we turned around, Mr. Kulp had had enough for the day and asked if we could just go home, and by this time it sounded like a good idea so I agreed, and that's what we did.
When we finally got home and sat down for a moment, I realized how fortunate we were that this story didn't have a different outcome. And then today I opened the paper to see that two young men lost their lives last night while changing a tire on the side of the road not 10 miles from my house. And that my friends is why I want you to live your lives with joy, not fear. Life can change from sunny skies to torrential rains and back to sunny skies in just a few minutes, but in a blink of an eye your entire itinerary and or priorities can change in that instant as well.
None of us ever knows what minute we will draw our last breath and it makes absolutely no sense to waste a minute of that precious life on fear and worriment about things that may never happen. Instead focus on the here and now. Could you get a virus and die? Yes, anything is possible, but should you fear it or worry about it? Absolutely not. Learn who your enemy is. If your enemy is this virus, read about it. learn about it. You'll find that your chances for death aren't as grim as you think. But you can protect yourself. You can stay home, you can wear a mask if it makes you feel better too. But the best way to protect yourself is to get healthy. Start exercising--every day. Start making better food choices--every day. Cut down on alcohol--a lot. Lose weight. Stop smoking. Get out of that bad relationship. Get more sleep. STOP STRESSING. Stress kills more people than corona ever will. Get healthy and live happy. That's how we will beat this by being your best possible happiest healthy self. And for me that means spreading out this Chocolate Cake amongst friends!
Comments