I was going to take my own advice and step away from the net and social media but I had an exchange with a stranger that I thought I might share.
I was up at the local post office sending out more copies of X-aspirations, as I do – on a daily basis. After the drop, I go to Coles supermarket, sometimes just to look, sometimes because I actually need something. As it was, they had some yogurt that I like and a few odds and ends we needed, so I checked them out and loaded up my shopping bag. I take a large calico affair with the legend I LOVE BOOKS printed boldly across it.
I was standing at the traffic lights and a gentleman of my vintage kept glancing down at my bag. Was he coveting the contents concealed within?
No, he was grinning and nodding. He told me he loved books too. So we started talking about books and yes, our social distancing did lapse as we moved from one genre to another. The lights changed and happily, we found we were headed in the same direction.
We started into Science Fiction. He had been a huge fan but given up recently because too much of the bad shit predicted and published as fiction was becoming too real.
Instead of being a warning it had become a blueprint of ‘How To Go About It’. I mentioned a book that a friend had drawn my attention to by Dean Koontz called The Eyes Of Darkness. In the book, there is mention of a biological weapon.
Quote 1- “In around 2020 a severe pneumonia-like illness will spread throughout the globe attacking the lungs and bronchial tubes… Almost more baffling will be the fact that it will suddenly vanish as quickly as it arrived it, attack again 10 years later and then disappear completely”
Quote 2 – “They call it ‘Wuhan 400’ because it was developed by their RDNA labs outside the cities of Wuhan….” there’s more but I’ll put up the pics from the book he sent if you like. (Looks like page 312 and then 333 or 555)
Where am I going with this…
Oh yeah, so we talked as we walked about books and sci-fi and all manner of all things literary. It was brilliant!
I’m home now and skipping trough things like Netflix, Stan and YouTube etc… and there is so many ‘end of the world’ post-apocalyptic series and movies. It’s like we are being conditioned to expect an end to life as we know if not life itself. Not just fictional stuff. Documentaries… the lot. We thrive on it. I got to thinking about how horror and murder sell so well.
We are a morbid lot.
I have come to the conclusion though, that in spite of it all, We Are Programmed To Survive. It is hard-wired into our DNA.
Once it was undoubtedly the Survival Of The Fittest, now it is just Survival. Even if it means hoarding thing like toilet paper. If that is what you need, or think you need, to survive then woe be to those that get in your way. Survive!
Programmed to survive and to reproduce is what we are. Unfortunately, the more you survive and the more you reproduce the more space you take up and the more things you need consume to keep the cycle going.
Like a virus.
The evolution of humanity has been based on mutation and adaptation. It’s a theory I have no argument with. For me specifically, there is only one race – the human race. There are many different ethnic variations of the members of the human race due to climate, isolation and aforementioned mutation (not as in X-Men, just differences) – a multitude of cause and effect producing different results and this become confused as being ‘racial’. All this, of course, is just my opinion. I am a ‘humanist’ when it comes down to it. All are equal. Different but equal.
The problem as I see it is the collective conscious – or subconscious. I feel like we have been primed to be triggered for some time now. Decades at least. We have seen and will be seeing more and more instances as the response becomes more apparent. Some triggers work, some fail.
I stress, that this is how I feel. There is no fact to it. I am not saying this is how it is. I am saying this is how I feel. I don’t do facts. They are as often wrong as they are right. Today’s opinion is tomorrow’s fact or vice versa. I am talking about how I feel.
I am not making light of anyone struck down by the new virus. It is sad, but no more sad than being struck down with any flu that ends in death or for that matter, by cancer or automobile accidents and everything else fatal…It is a new thing but in essence not that new. It is different but not that different. The symptoms are pretty much the same kind of infection that saw me hospitalised last year. (It was bad. I wouldn’t wish it on anyone.) It is contagious – but virii are.
So take precautions. We know what they are, we used to be taught them at school.
Don’t sneeze and cough on people. It is as impolite as it is unhygienic.
Carry tissues or a handkerchief.
Wash your face and hands with warm soapy water.
Drink lots of warm fluids.
Get out into sunlight if you can. Like the mythical vampire, all virus’ cannot survive direct sunlight.
Be calm, kind and considerate.
