“Everybody is so cranky these days,” a friend mentioned to me. “I know of couples on the verge of divorce.”
He was talking about pandemic stress and how so many seem to be affected by it, to greater and lesser degrees.
Including the media. Some outlets are just getting meaner and meaner — even if they have their hands out begging for assistance from governments.
I was praying the other day, as I was driving into the village. I was thanking the Great Spirit for all the blessings in my life — and that, so far, I’ve managed to avoid catching the coronavirus.
A thought occurred to me while I was driving — maybe a response from God? So many of the things we Westerners are concerned about must seem trivial and silly to impoverished people in poor nations. We have so, so much, and they have so, so, so little. We have time to fret about the stupidest things, while they worry about having the basic necessities to survive.
Case in point: Today, in the cesspool of Twitter, many are all in a dither over a Tampax advertisement that is trying to be inclusive by including trans men who still have periods. Many of the negative comments are coming from (non-trans) men. Say what? Since when does a man get to comment on a woman’s period? Or a trans man’s period?
You know that tabby news outlets will pick up on it. Don’t be surprised to see some accusatory columns about it all in conservative news outlets.
It’s just one illustration of the pettiness that seems to be taking hold. And the animosity. And the mean-spiritedness.
People are attacking each other with words, in social media and the mainstream media, at a time when we should be pulling together.
I suppose it is just another negative side-effect of the coronavirus.
But it seems to me that many of us still have a lot to be grateful for, starting with the miracle of life itself. Even the poorest souls on Earth can appreciate the opportunity to witness a sunrise and a sunset, for example.
“Life is what you make it,” they say.
It’s how you cope.
I’ve been cranky, too, at times during this pandemic. There are a few things I would like to take a second run at. But these days, I’ve been trying to look on the proverbial bright side.
Try it sometime (if you haven’t already): Count your blessings, starting with being alive — the first great miracle for each of us. And then look at the sky, and the horizon, and marvel at it all . . . You get it, I know.
it’s the antidote for anxiety.
As is the new genre of fiction I’ve discovered. It’s lite. A wee bit silly. And fun. It makes me happy. It’s perfect for these trying times.
I’ll tell you about it in another post.
— Jillian
Jillian Page 
“We have time to fret about the stupidest things, while they worry about having the basic necessities to survive.”
I’ve heard that described as “first world problems.” Some of us do not adjust well to difficulty and inconvenience. Some of us cannot deal with alone time. I suspect there is some underlying anger or bitterness or maybe anxiety just below the surface. Social distancing and masks and political animosity is all it takes to pop that mountain above the surface.
People react way out of proportion to the stimuli presented because it isn’t just wearing a mask but rather the mountain of unhappiness beneath it they are responding too. Maybe a “feather that broke the camel’s back” situation.
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As to the “stressors” you refer to as being CAUSED by the pandemic, I suggest they were already there, and in effect are simply AMPLIFIED by the pandemic.
“I know of couples on the verge of divorce.”….. The pandemic never CAUSED the divorces, it HASTENED them.
Apologies to Fred IF I’m paraphrasing his comment!
(BTW, I love your pic of Lac Pilon. The last time I saw it was a blizzardy sub-freezing day in mid-winter….it was as beautiful then as it is in mid-summer!)
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This lack of “civility” was being eroded decades ago in “the West”. Many, many moons ago I met an gentleman from India, might also have been Pakistan,-memory escapes me about country of origin, who happened to have the Schrödinger Wave equation on his t-shirt; Physics student. He mentioned during conversation that it was about time “the West stopped living ‘high off the hog’.” Wealth, of course, now, appears doesn’t ‘buy happiness,’ rather just exacerbates the ennui and lack of imagination that sloth and gluttony ferments. Again, this cuts through no matter what $ or Edu. class you are in. “Civilizations” rise and fall still happening because the veil of civilized behaviour is precisely this, a veil. So, “end of days” indeed. It has been a glorious Fall though %%@ %’)
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