The fear, the hysteria, the angry judgement and finger pointing to all those who dare flout the rules right now, is still there. Sometimes a backdrop, sometimes in the foreground. Depends on who is triggered and how deeply, I guess.
Posts with 'Stay at home. Be responsible!, Don't Kill Others by Going Out!' Etc. are starting to appear in my newsfeed. They are often followed by stories of who is flouting the rules, complete with angry faced emoticons and much jumping up and down with indignation.This is good advice, of course! And those who know it to be will follow, and those who won't, still won't. (Why are there no posts, for instance about the flights still allowed to come into this country? I never agree with Priti Patel, but I think she was bang on when she said we needed to close our borders. That seems common sense, given the severity of this. Yet we're not.) Of course social distancing is key, but posts like this can often help promote anger right now, at a time when people aren't thinking straight, and anger mightn't be the most helpful emotion. One guy posted in our village group page that he wanted a cleaner the other day and my God, the judgement and vitriol he got for that! He then explained it was so he could let his flats to NHS staff, etc. Then everyone was fine. It'll be virtual pitchforks and flaming torches next or socially distanced, real ones. Mob mentality at it's finest. Created from pure fear.
And I get that there is a lot of fear, but posts like this only inspire much finger-pointing judgement and angry face emoticons. I just don't think it's healthy to focus too much on the actions of others -- all we can control are our own. How are *we* behaving towards our loved ones, for instance? How do you behave when the chips are down and the shit is hitting the proverbial? Can you still be kind when things are even just a little tough? Are you still kind then, or do you turn into something out of Greek mythology, all snake-headed and hideous? Have you sufficiently slain your own inner demons, so you can judge others? The police will likely ramp up the fines etc. to others which will help reduce congregations over time. Over the coming weeks, I'd expect the fear levels to ramp up, the judgement to ramp up, much crazy-making behaviour, on and off social media. Anything to help promote a sense of calm right now, is probably helpful. If people are going crazy, all CAPS LOCK, telling other people how they're being so selfish for going out, for shopping, for buying loo rolls, but then they going and screaming at their kids, etc. then how do they get to judge? Judging others' can make us forget to look at our own behaviour.
Fear is likely creating distorted behaviour for everyone who is feeling it right now. If you're getting triggered by posts on Facebook when you normally don't -- you're affected. If you're one of the people jumping up and down in indignation -- breathe. Slow down. Turn off the caps key. Grab a coffee, or a tea, and just try to sit with all that anger for a moment or two and see if you can observe the source. (It's probably fear.) And that's OK, it really is! These are weird times that we've only ever seen in apocalyptic films. (That usually end with America saving the day because some absurdly young and good-looking bloke was willing to fly a plane carrying a nuke directly into the sun. Then everyone claps and waves the American flag about. The end.)
Humans are irrational. We're a really weird species. Sometimes we're just a bit shit. But sometimes we're capable of so much love and kindness and generosity of spirit, that it's humbling and beautiful to witness. Perhaps that's why Noah was saved? He offered a glimmer of hope in the darkness. Lets try to promote kindness and a little compassion over the coming weeks? It's going to be hard out there. We can help by offering our words as tiny branches of hope for others to hold when the current is strong and they don't know where to turn.
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