Friday, July 17, 2020

Shopping in a Diseased Country

John was home today so I ran errands that I don't often do and would rather not do with the girls. I went to five stores in three hours. I didn't find everything I wanted but I did get chocolate milk! 

It's always an interesting experience to go shopping these days because it's a small window into the world, a face to face sampling of society(as opposed to the also very small window of social media). Or should I say, mask-to-mask. Thankfully I've not gone anywhere where masks were absolutely required, because I don't want to wear one. I really dislike how wearing masks de-humanizes people. I dislike going out and not seeing people's faces. It makes them more like robots because you can't see any facial expressions or emotions. It's difficult to even hear what people are saying. Masks cut human interaction down to almost nothing, and I don't like that.

People out and about today were very friendly, but I felt more of an underlying insistence, possibly even militancy, that people follow "the rules." And it's like people are walking on eggshells trying to keep them all(the rules). One lady standing in line behind me waiting to get into a store spoke with calm resignation of all of us living in fear. Another lady standing in line profusely thanked the woman next to her for being a hero and working as a nurse, even though she was a nurse in a psych ward, not an infectious disease ward. Such an odd flavor to our world right now. And so much social pressure. Social pressure never really bothers me. I can dress differently and live differently from culture and I'm fine being different. I think I get that from growing up homeschooled and also from mom. But won't all these people who do care about what society thinks start to crack at some point?

Also so many people living in fear of catching a disease. Coming out of the past four months has cemented in my mind that avoiding disease is not worth the cost of isolation; not for this long of a time. I can see the affect of isolation on people and while it may not be extreme yet, none of it is good. This situation also makes me think back on the three years we lived in Ft. Worth, and how I struggled with being alone. Being alone is bad! God said so!

No comments: