Blog Post
Now on to my topic.
- When is it Good to be Fearful?
Has anyone NOT been afraid of the coronavirus at some point since the beginning of March?
My own hand cannot come up. Especially in the first six weeks, there were times when my anxiety level went up a notch or two. Was that a bad thing, something to be ashamed of? No. What we were facing with Covid-19 was a complete unknown. A certain amount of fear can be healthy thing, providing caution and alertness. It gave me an awareness of the feelings of others, to respect their feelings by exercising caution in interactions, etc.
My initial response was that the media being the media was putting a tremendous amount of hype into this crisis that was blowing it out of proportion; that gave way to a decision to wait and see, along with the fear response reaction explained above.
But fear can be harmful and unnecessary.
AS the weeks have gone by, we've gotten a whole lot more factual data about the virus. We've also gotten a whole lot of conflicting information. But when you sort it all out and look at the facts, why are some people still so fearful? Unless you live in one of about ten places within the country, your chances of contacting this virus - as contagious as it is - are very slim. Unless you are extremely elderly, frail, and in very poor health, your chances of succumbing to it are almost nil.
YET out in the fresh air with no one within ten feet, much less six, people are still wearing their masks. There is no evidence you contact the virus through casual touch or any brief encounter (quite the opposite, if that were true we'd see this thing spreading like the measles went through my 9th grade class in high school!). Yet businesses are forced to spend huge amounts of money on expensive cleaners that leave the air stifling and bring on allergy reactions. (John Hopkins University says good old soap and water is just as good.).
It just doesn't make any sense to me. This country was founded and make successful by people who were willing to take risks. Big risks. Should we cower in our homes and wait for a month to go by without Any new active cases of Covid-19 before venturing forth to worship together, accept visits from our family members, and support a local restaurant that has been allowed to seat diners again?
HOW about some common sense here? Common sense among our leaders in government and the health field would be the first place to start - that's sadly lacking in some quarters.
BUT among us peons, common sense is just as helpful for our stable mental health. If you are among the high risk, take that into careful consideration in your social habit decisions. If you are responsible for the care of the elderly, the sick, the care of the vulnerable in any health care setting, take all of the proper precautions. That's not fear, that is good judgement.
AS I write this there have been over 117,000 fatalities from the coronavirus in the past 14 or 15 weeks. That's a lot of people. But if you take out the epidemic in New York City, and include 4 more areas where the population was extremely vulnerable due to living situations and lifestyle habits (low levels of vitamin D may be a significant factor), that number goes down to about 1150 people per state in the union - over a 3 month period of time. Some states have had less than 1% percent of a mortality rate; a high number of diagnosed cases but very few deaths at all.
THAT means that since the 1st of March you were much more likely to be in an automobile accident or be diagnosed with some other serious disease, like cancer, than have your life threatened by The Virus.
I blame the media in large part for this hysteria - that's what some of this has been, hysteria. But what about us, the American people? Does this show us some flaw in our character too, that so many of us are still so fearful?
LIFE is meant to be lived, lived for good purpose. Show me where going out in public puts me or others are significant risk of severe illness or death, and I'll change my mind. And maybe only then if it is about other people. What is my life worth if I'm not willing to go out there and live it?
And I'm getting the hang of this new screen for putting up a post.
My blog is doing the same -- changing the "editor" when I am still learning the old "editor." So far I have been able to opt out. Not sure for how long. I expect someday I'll get on my blog and find I am being forced to use the new. Sigh.
ReplyDeleteAs far as the virus goes -- I live in one of the top states with high numbers of cases and deaths. So we've been expected to be compliant to Hitler's rules. However, today our church is having church outdoors and presently it is in the 40s! Should be in the 60s by 10am. It will be a cool church service today. We have the option of streaming. Even church has option. 😊
Blessing on your Lord's day.
And on yours!
DeleteAdjusting to the new way of submitting posts wasn't so bad once I got into it....
hope your experience is not too traumatic when you don't have a choice anymore.
This is long, so I'm breaking it up:
ReplyDeleteI am not an anxious person -- which is certainly not to say I've never felt fear -- but I have been spared anxiety about this pandemic. I probably look paranoid at times, just as I do in flu outbreaks, because I don't remember a time when I wasn't frail and sickly. Not too long ago, I endured 16 months during which I never strung together three weeks without being ill. I only came close three times, each time falling short somewhere between two and three weeks. I have a rogue immune system, too busy attacking me to protect me, so I don't touch elevator buttons or public doorknobs or handles with my own hands as long as I can find anything else. And I wash my hands promptly, with soap and water, when I can't. (I don't put much trust in hand sanitizers, especially not since an acquaintance got shigellosis after relying on sanitizer instead of soap and water when changing her baby's diapers.)
This is a blessing, not a triumph, because I'm not really tempted to feel anxious. On a religious note, I make a distinction between feeling anxious, which is an affliction, and giving way to anxiety, which is a sin. If we give way, we do not trust God.
I do trust God, who has a very long history of protecting me and even blessing me through many, many illnesses and health conditions. That history, of course, makes it easier for me, just as it is easier for us to feel confident that, say, the sun will rise in the East. It always does, and we see it do so without fail. So, I'm not congratulating myself here.
As always, your thoughts and knowledge are well articulated and so appreciated. May I say, my experience with anxiety is that it creeps up unwanted, and harboring it rather than fighting it - and trusting God is crucial in that - is when it gets to be a monster.
DeleteYou are definitely in the high risk category for covid-19 being a grave problem. Being free from fearfulness yourself is a great example for the rest of us.
I make a distinction between acting on anxiety and feeling anxious. I may well get CoVid-19. If so, I will almost certainly fall seriously ill because my immune system has forgotten how to protect me, if it ever knew. But for me, and I'd underscore that if I could, it is easy to be calm. What isn't easy is to love the nextdoor neighbors who throw three and four loud, drunken parties a week and force me to wear earplugs and hearing protector ear muffs (at the same time) in my own home. God is still here, so I should trust Him to provide the peace I need as much as I trust Him to care for me in sickness. But this is where I am vulnerable, not over health. In sickness, I feel very close to God. In noise, not so much!
DeletePart Two:
ReplyDeleteI do trust God, who has a very long history of protecting me and even blessing me through many, many illnesses and health conditions. That history, of course, makes it easier for me, just as it is easier for us to feel confident that, say, the sun will rise in the East. It always does, and we see it do so without fail. So, I'm not congratulating myself here.
I do take a lot of care. I have three autoimmune disorders. I have asthma. I have mild hypertension, which is generally well controlled with medication. I just turned 60. So how much at risk am I? I don't know.
Meanwhile, I've learned that people who are deficient in Vitamin D are more prone to catch the virus and more prone to have a severe response. One autoimmune disorder led to early osteoporosis, then prescriptions for Vitamin D and regular monitoring. So, I know that I have a lot of Vitamin D -- just over the normal range. I recently learned that people with Type O blood are less likely to catch it and less likely to be seriously ill if they do catch it.
I used to be a news junkie -- it's why I went into journalism in the 1980s -- but I got out in 1999 or 2000 because I didn't like the direction the industry was going, and it's only gotten worse. The constant demand for 24-hour news is now fueled by the Internet as well as cable and satellite television, so it's natural that we are seeing the kind of yellow journalism in television that nearly ruined newspapers in the early 20th Century. I'm discriminating now. I read The Wall Street Journal and little else. I don't watch television news, which depends on keeping you anxiously glued to the screen and never, ever provides depth of coverage. Endless, yes. Depth, no.
As you point out, MaryJo, a mask is worthless if the wearer is outdoors and yards away from others. Most of the masks I see are worthless even if the wearers are face to face with an infected person. It makes sense to avoid stupid people if your risks are high. It doesn't make sense to cower in your home, afraid to go out for anything or any reason, as one poor woman from my church has done since early March.
I never stopped going to church, though my church suspended public services. I went to pray, and a few others met me (and my husband there). We reopened a month ago. I now wear a mask, because the idiot music director isn't following the social distancing we set down for the choir and has them stand next to the pews, singing. Singing is an activity that is liable to spread the virus far and wide, leaving those dreaded aerosolized drops hovering for hours.
I could catch this. I could be severely ill. But, in the end, I'm putting my faith in God to protect me even in the Valley of the Shadow of Death, and I'm taking sensible precautions. And, for what it's worth, I haven't had the flu since 1999.
Your record is much better than mine. I've had the flu twice since 1999,
Deleteand it was no picnic at all. Last time 9 years ago, so definitely not part of this current health challenge.
But not to minimize the fact you have a whole lot of other issues to deal with, and have, one day at a time.
A nephew has recently received a very grave diagnosis. He told the doctor dying was not the worst thing that could happen, not at all. I agree.
I'm with you on this one, Mary Jo. The law of unintended consequences has really kicked in, and I am seeing that many people are denied needed health care for chronic conditions because of the restrictions imposed on health care providers that are causing more harm and death than the corona virus. It is time for common sense to rule over fear, for people to get back to work, and for believers to trust in God and be the forefront of claiming our freedoms back from an overbearing government.
ReplyDeleteYou preach it, sister!
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