What’s on my mind? The day-to-day tedium of COVID-19: The social distancing; the home confinement; the wearing of masks in public places; the inability to visit friends one-on-one.
Live with it, Baby Doll: Dying from COVID would be significantly harder.
What if your choices were different? What if you said: “I choose not to get sucked into the negativity and vortex of fear”? In other words, ignore the pandemic. I know someone who’s done exactly that. Sounds pretty good, right? An anti-vaxxer, her recent birthday party featured a DJ and a newly installed dance floor.
She’s posted Facebook pix of herself at a bar. She’s currently staying at a luxury resort and spa. Good? Uh-uh. Bad. Very, very bad - precisely the selfish behavior that perpetuates the spread of a deadly virus. Maturity and critical thinking skills will get us through this crisis. Me-first thinking will not.
Me-first thinking is irresponsible. So is COVID denial and the inability to grasp reality. Suggesting COVID is a hoax is wilful ignorance that puts lives at risk - your own, your family’s, and the lives of those around you. Suck it up, buttercup.
COVID is depressing on many escalating levels. You’re bored? You won’t be if you’re fighting for your life. You’re depressed? Get over it.
Himself and I sometimes get depressed. And then we poke our noses out the window to inhale the fresh air; we go for a walk; we play cards; we phone or send emails to those who need a lift; we donate what we can to those in desperate need.
Helping others makes us feel better. A recent psychological study found that helping another person offers a three-way benefit: The person helped feels better; you feel better; anyone observing the good deed feels better. In other words, think less about you and more about others.
This morning, I saw a TV ad for a luxury Alfa Romeo sedan. The attractive blond behind the wheel was on her way to a social event. I found the ad’s elitist message (and timing, during a global pandemic) offensive.
The number of unemployed is increasing. So is the number of homeless. Some of those still hanging on need to choose between paying the rent and buying food. Essential workers are exhausted. Many hospitals and morgues have reached their capacity. Extremists are rioting. Government bail-outs are becoming stretched.
Alfa Romeo’s ad highlights the divide between the haves and have-nots. The ad isn’t meant to offend, but I have to wonder if the subtle message to the rich is that lifting the boredom, depression, and fear of COVID is as simple as buying a new toy - the infinitely costlier version of a DJ and a newly installed dance floor.
I’m cranky, I suppose, but (as much as I love animals) the tear-jerking TV ads for the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty of Animals (ASPCA) also offend me. There’s plenty online about these ads: Read it. My guess is that the ASPCA is highly sensitive about such searches, because the overwhelming number of sites I looked at were critical of how much money actually goes to animals in need.
I’ve wondered the same, so within seconds of my Googling the question, the site I checked linked directly to a lawyer’s office. Shortly after, a representative of that very office was online for a “chat.” I immediately disconnected from the site.
To the best of my knowledge, the ASPCA has not published an annual report since the end of 2018, when it claimed $283 million in assets. At the time, its CEO was paid $712,397 and $57,129 in benefits, for a total compensation of $769,526.
I have no way of knowing if the site from which I got this information is or is not true, but I do know several things: 1/ The best way to protect animals is through strengthened local, state, and provincial laws as well as tough federal legislation. 2/ Although animal abuse and neglect are tragic, people should take priority over animals during this desperate time of COVID. 3/ Charities able to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on sad-sounding TV ads are not the kind of charities I want to support.
As people around the world suffer, others spend money recklessly. Let’s hope the ultimate cost of a DJ and a dance floor doesn’t deliver any nasty surprises.
© Nicole Parton, 2021
