I’m finding myself in this really weird predicament where the world is very ‘us’ and ‘them’ right now. Where somewhere along the way we have forgotten to just be kind. Paranoid about what everyone else is doing and needing to have an opinion. But maybe it has always been like that. Between the ‘office staff’ and the ‘warehouse staff’. The ‘managers’ and the ’employees’. The hierarchy. There seems to be such a great divide right now between the people who ‘choose’ to vaccinate and those who don’t and those who ‘choose’ to wear a mask and those who don’t. Those who ‘choose’ to be with their loved ones and live their lives and those who follow the rules and ‘choose’ not to. Essentially it is all a choice that some seem to have forgotten they have.
What happened to understanding that everyone is on their own life path that we stopped focusing on our own lane? When did we gain the right to comment and judge and criticise someone else’s life we know nothing about?
I’ll admit I’m triggered when people comment about how they believe those who don’t wear a mask or choose not to vaccinate are ‘selfish’. Firstly, why should I care what someone else thinks of me? Yet I feel myself conforming. Wearing a mask to make others feel comfortable when I don’t believe in it.
What I have noticed (and these are just my observations) is that there are a lot of people struggling and rather than getting angry they seem to be more compassionate. Their personal struggle is embracing the collective struggle of those around them. They are spending their days trying to build up others, supporting those enduring the same pain and trying with all their might to stay positive.
Yet the ones who aren’t impacted, who can safely transition to working from home, who don’t have to worry about money flowing into their bank accounts, who might be retired or in a position where the ripple affect of tragedy hasn’t impacted them. Aside from adjusting to the hermit life and complaining about the lack of toilet paper on the supermarket shelves or the inconvenience of being told to wear a mask, they seem completely oblivious to how bleak and impactful these lockdowns are to the small business owners and the like.
Perhaps my empathic nature makes me understand that there is something greater going on. Maybe my intuitive pulls and guides have led me down the paths knowing that this conditioning and power struggle is something I don’t want to bow down to.
In the same breath I don’t bark at people for choosing what they believe in. I’ll happily listen to those who have taken the needle who then preach to everyone who will hear it, I don’t argue with them, I simply listen. For some reason and from my own personal interactions they only seem willing to hear the sound of their own voice. They aren’t willing to take on board any alternatives other that what they believe to be the truth. How is that fair? Why do we all need to conform, we have the right to consent to so many things in our life. If you don’t consent to sex then it’s classed as rape. So how is putting something in our bodies that we don’t consent to any different?
My views are my own. Yes, I have cautioned my loved ones but at the end of the day it’s their body, their life path and they need to do what they believe is right. My mum and my grandmother have both gone ahead with the needle. Their doctor and specialists encouraged them to do so. I was slightly dramatic and told my mother that she was going to kill my grandmother. I know, I know but I don’t want them to be guinea pigs. That was the one and only time I was so brutal and blunt but in my defense, it all stemmed from love.
All I’m hoping is that somewhere along the line freedom comes into play to make a choice and that doesn’t get taken away from us. You do you and I’ll do me, I’m not hurting anyone with my opinions but I do believe that at some point we need to drop the struggle and come together and just be respectful of one another.
Those with mental health struggles shouldn’t need to be anxious about not wearing a mask in public fearing that someone will verbally abuse them. Everyone is going through a struggle we know nothing about so why do we feel so called to make judgment?
I am the only parent at pick up and drop off who doesn’t wear a mask outside the school gates. This is my decision, I want to smile at my child when I pick him up from school and be able to breathe in that fresh air. Common courtesy means when I’m not well I stay home but to be honest I thought that was always just a general rule, aside from when you send your kids to daycare because that’s when all bets are off and they don’t seem to care about spreading germs (fellow parents will feel me on this one!)
I’m not ignorant to the fact that yes people can get extremely ill, but I do believe that we are all responsible for looking after our immunity, fueling our bodies in a way that keeps us healthy, exercising to maintain our fitness and indulging in some self care that revitalises our mental health. Not everyone is blessed with a healthy immune system and I am so sympathetic to that fact, but I don’t believe the lifestyle of being cooped up at home is something that would strengthen that immunity in any way shape or form. Stress is a huge factor, yet it never seems to weigh in.
This has never been about ignorance, it’s simply about fighting for the little people. The people who have a small business who have lost everything and have now lost their will to fight. Those who have families who have taken their lives because the struggle is too much. Those who are clinging onto that last bit of hope but can’t see the light. To me no one is more important than the other. The people who own these large companies, earning and producing these pharmaceuticals, what if they channeled that energy into a third world country and saved the millions starving and without clean water? Just a thought. A small drop in the ocean.
Instead of solely caring about ourselves, what if we start caring about the collective? What if we all became a community who just accepted each other and our individual beliefs without needing to be right or wrong? A little bit of respect goes a long way so what if that small change could in turn make the world a better more peaceful place right now?
BEAUTIQUELY ME 