Afraid of the sun
or
Bellering
What are we afraid of?
Only you know what you fear and for most of us we don't know why we fear what we do. My daughter's green conures live with my wife and I, they were evicted from her apartment in Regina. Obie (Oberon) and Nia (Titania) are beautiful roommates. Obie controls the people who know him because for most of them he has bitten them and drawn blood. His bites are about what you would expect and there really is no reason to "fear" him, his bite is the bite of a small bird. But it is clear that his few ounces of feather and fluff properly wielded, can affect things around him. Regardless of what our fears are, we are all like Obie, we have what we have and we need to use it to affect the world around us, to create a life we want to live, not one we have to live. My good friend Graham lives down near St. Catherines somewhere. Graham is ginger and he is afraid of the sun. A hat is almost always compulsory and when we walk around Graham is always aware of the sun and where it is shining so we are always on the cool side of the street. His fear of the sun is justified, even short exposures can cause tremendous damage to his skin because he burns so easily. I don't share his fear, I have an epidermis that barely weathers and yields only slowly to any type of erosion. I can spring ski with goggles and you can hardly tell I've had them on yet I still walk on the cool side of the street. I won't try to quantify risks for anyone. I have been bitten by Obie numerous times because he really hates men, I walk an the cool side and I am not afraid of the sun.
We have had many battles over the aeons with many viruses. We have defeated them time and time again but the war will never end, they vie for control of the biome just as we do and they survive and prosper in our midst. This isn't about fear of the unknown, we have a good grasp of what is happening, it is no mystery and it has happened before. No, the problems we face today are purely structural and any bellering you hear from whoever is the pain of the old order as it is trimmed to fit this opening. The math is the math, the overwhelming numbers of victims, that is the problem we all face and it simply isn't business as usual. Our systems will be overwhelmed in the next few weeks and we all need to fear that. Time to help those you love, get them what they need to self-isolate. Exhort, coerce, pay, plea, beg, ask, demand, reach out, DO IT NOW. Get off your couch of fear and self-pity and denial, act. Do what you can to get everyone you know to do their part, we need to slow the transmission of the virus. This isn't fear of the unknown. |
