Random and Insidious

 It is random.

This disease, this plague, this virus, this pandemic, is random.  It is infecting millions, but the severity of cases seems random and capricious.  

Some who get it barely know they have it.  Some are sick for a few days, home with mild symptoms.  Some have the worst flu/cold/virus of their lives, tussling with it for a couple of weeks.  Some are hospitalized.  Some have symptoms that persist for months.  And some die.

The most vulnerable among us are most at risk.  But that is not universally true.  One of my church's youngest, most vibrant vestry members succumbs to the disease.   Just yesterday, a young father loses his life after a month of struggles, with his loving wife and family pulling out all the stops to save him, trying to make our stubborn, inert medical system respond to his needs.  Young children have died.

It is insidious.

This disease, this plague, this virus, this pandemic is insidious.  Many who get this can shrug it off and get fooled into thinking it's not that big of a deal.  But it's there.  And it is deadly.  And millions worldwide, including 425,000 plus Americans, have died.

Some people walk through the madness, unmasked, without a care for themselves or for others.  Maybe they have some special immunity I don't understand.  Maybe their case was so asymptomatic that they didn't know they had it.  

As horrible as this is, somehow it falls below the recognition that the nation is in crisis.  Maybe by now, they know somebody who has died.  But somehow, they dismiss it as an unfortunate aberration, or maybe it's not really a COVID death.  I'm sorry.  If you have a heart attack while you have COVID or are recovering, that's a COVID related death.  

Random and insidious.

With COVID variants coming, it may become more contagious.  It may affect children more.

We need to mask up, wash our hands, and socially distance.  This is not a game.  This not a matter of personal liberty.  This is life or death, and we need to take it seriously.

I mask.  I socially distance.  I need to do better at hand washing.  I don't do it often enough or long enough.  So there.  I admitted my imperfection.

I also screwed up getting the COVID vaccine.  I wanted to wait until some of the older, more at-risk people I knew were scheduled. 

Which means I didn't call until this morning.  Where I was told that scheduling vaccine appointments were currently "on pause."

My bad.  I am not perfect.

I will wait until availability is announced again.  I am more concerned about those around me than myself.  My son is at college, and although he is cautious, others around him are not.  Someone close to me works in an environment that is...somewhat lax in its approach to this crisis.

I worry.  And I wait.

My heart and soul are crushed by the pain and sorrow I see around me.  My mind and spirit are devastated by the lack of caring I see around me,

Random and insidious.

All my thoughts, love, and prayers to everyone, and that we can pull through this pandemic soon.