Three Things COVID Taught Me

Life’s a trip!

This morning Andrew Yang posted a video on Facebook where he made three predictions. The first one caught my attention. He gallantly predicted that 2022 would see the end of COVID.

Thanks, Andrew! I sure hope you’re right.

Unlike Yang, I’m not here to predict anything in particular, especially not something as squirrelly as COVID. I’ll leave that up to the epidemiologists. In spite of all of their expertise, COVID has been a constant challenge to stay on top of as near as I can tell.

Such is life when humans encounter something new.

Like most humans, I’m a bit better at summing up what has already occurred rather than predicting what’s to come. Although I’ve made some pretty awesome predictions in the past that turned out to be spot on. Not to toot my own horn. But that’s not the purpose of this article.

So, here are three things that COVID has taught me in the past two years.

1. There’s a small window of opportunity whenever a surge begins to wane. That’s when everyone gets hopeful and runs out to get things done. I’ve missed a few of those already due to being an extra cautious person ( I hate medical bills), but the next one that comes along, I’m getting my butt out there. That’s right! I’ll put on my N95 and take long walks in the woods like the rest of the devil-may-care crowd. I just turned 71. I don’t have that much longer left on this planet even under the best of conditions. So, if you bump into me on a trail by a stream under a giant oak while talking to a raven, step aside. I ain’t moving for no one.
2. People can’t cooperate even to save their own lives. Now, I freely admit that I’ve always had a rather low opinion of humanity’s problem-solving skills, but COVID shined a glaring light on our inability to cooperate. Although I really wasn’t too surprised, after all we still struggle to get along with those we claim to have fallen head over heels in love with, but you can’t blame a girl for hoping. And, it isn’t just American’ts fighting viciously with one another while the world is going up in flames. Nope when it comes to humans, fighting seems to be par for the course.
3. For every person who has in depth knowledge about a topic, there are at least a thousand who have zero knowledge. The problem being that nowadays fewer and fewer people seem to understand which group they fit into. Because the rules have been completely rewritten, there is almost no merit any longer in specializing in anything. And, although I feel more comfortable having a highly trained surgeon operate on me, that doesn’t mean they should give anyone any advice, because apparently, being intuitive about one’s health is not only cheaper but just as effective. Granted, I’m assuming my reading audience recognizes sarcasm when they read it.

This teeny tiny, mutating, globally transmitted virus has not only kicked our butts, but divided us into dozens of rabid, foaming-at-the-mouth splinter groups.

In the meantime, I sit in a comfy chair, reading content based entirely on articles personally selected for me by algorithms that strive harder than my husband to please me — and succeed. It doesn’t get any weirder than that.

So … is there hope for humanity?

Will the likes of Andrew Yang’s predictions about COVID come true? Will the next elections offer us salvation? Do American’ts have what it takes to endure another year of COVID if Yang is wrong? And if he’s right, will we be able to fix the new problems and many old problems that abound with or without COVID?

Nope! I ain’t going to say nothin’.

I won’t even venture a guess. You can’t trick me that easily. And even if I did cave in and offer a prediction or two of my own, you probably wouldn’t like it unless you totally agreed with me. So, let’s just leave it at that. Shall we?

Teresa Roberts is a retired educator, author, world traveler, and professional myth buster. You can find her books on Amazon.