COVID-19: The New Normal

LET THEM EAT CAKE

Every possible media outlet is consumed with COVID-19. You can't turn on the TV, tune into a Radio Station or go on-line without being bombarded by this journalist or that talk show host delivering their angle on the crisis: It's a political ploy to bring down the economy in order to prevent President Trumps reelection. The virus was intentionally released by the Chinese as a form of bio-warfare. It's all hype – it's no worse than the common cold. It's a means to initiate marshal law and control the people! Stop the sale of guns! Yeah...that will help! Take guns out of the hands of those ignorant red-necks...that will stop it!

We heard snippets of COVID-19 in Arizona. It originated in China. Concerns of it spreading to other countries seemed valid. It was highly contagious but also a high survival rate. You might get it and not even know it. The elderly and immune compromised were most at risk. It felt...distant. It was happening somewhere else. Nobody seemed overly worried and went about daily snowbird life. The Family Dollar had Clorox Wipes and T.P to spare.

A mere four days had passed since I returned from my Snowbird life. I'd been gone for two months. The house was cold and empty when I stepped over the threshold of my front door. After spending 60 days living in an 8 foot short-wall – it felt cavernous...excessive.

I built a fire in both wood stoves and took inventory of my pantry. I added just about everything to my list: Alexa, add T.P to shopping list. Alexa, add milk to shopping list. Alexa, add rice and pearl barley to shopping list. Alexa, add pinto beans to shopping list. All stuff I usually have on hand . In preparation for my snow-birding adventure, I'd consumed what I could and took most everything else with me. My pantry was sparse at best. I tossed my reusable grocery bags in the front seat and set off for Win-co. I may as well not have bothered...one measly bag of pearl barley doesn't take up much room in a grocery bag.

We, my fellow shoppers and I, resembled cart pushing zombies as we passed each other in the isles – glancing from one side to the other in awe of the emptiness. No cart coming within 3 feet of the next in an attempt to conform to the laws of social distancing. In the blink of an eye, a microscopic entity had changed our whole world.

It's like nobody could believe it was happening here in the good old United States. How could we be out of toilet paper? Where did it all go? Did they suddenly stop making it? Had the Spotted Owl of the 80's finally won it's day in court and paper products were no more?

I thought – OK, fine...I don't HAVE to have toilet paper to survive. Food I need to survive. The items I normally buy had gone the way of the T.P conundrum. No peanut butter, no beans, rice or oatmeal. I found one small bag of pearl barley for my oxtail stew. It's a good thing I like oxtail stew. I picked up a few things I don't normally eat...prepackaged food chuck full of preservatives and MSG.

I turned down an obscure isle in Win-Co without a hint of what was supposed to be on the shelves. They were bare. I slowly pushed my cart down to the end in disbelief. A man pushing his cart was a respectable distance behind me. I glanced up..tucked back on the very top shelf were two cardboard boxes with the contents hidden from view. I stepped on the bottom shelf and tippy-toes to flip them over so we could see what they were. Two broke open cases of generic tissue paper. The man and I looked at each other like we'd just struck gold. I put 4 boxes in my cart and left the rest.

I pushed my cart through the isles trying to find substitutes for the things I couldn't get...which was pretty much everything on my list. No flour...scratch that idea. I started to pass up a few small bags of sugar scattered haphazardly on a bottom shelf. I don't know what good sugar is going to do me without flour. I picked up a bag and sort of stared at it for awhile. My dad would be horrified at the condition of the merchandise. What little product there was upside down...backwards...tipped over or pushed to the back. I grew up stocking shelves in my dads grocery store. To this day, I cannot walk by a shelf and not straighten it up if need be. 

I put the sugar back and before I realized it I was knelt down pulling bags of sugar to the front of the shelf and setting them up right. I fought back tears. My god...I miss Dad. If he were here, he would know what to do. He would gather us all up and implement “the plan.” My family would be O.K. We would survive this. It is what dad had prepared us for since we took our first steps. But he is not here. It is just me in this damn grocery store trying to straighten and restock shelves that some hoarder is going to violate again all too soon. I would not partake in the hysteria. I placed the sugar back on the shelf, wiped my tears (yeah, that's right...doing so meant touching my face! So much for step two of the five steps of avoiding the creeping crud according to Google.) A man pushing an almost empty cart appeared in my isle and spoke: “You better take it. It's the last you're going to find in town.”

Each store was the same. Empty shelves replaced toilet paper, rice, beans, oatmeal and baby wipes that once vied for consumer attention. No longer did “fancy” products touting quilted softness smelling of spring rain lord over generic 1 ply economy. I'm certain if somebody wound sandpaper onto an empty Charmin spool, there would be a greedy T.P hoarder willing to snatch it out of the hands of a child.

Fresh out of ideas of what to put in my cart, I headed toward the checkout with my bag of pearl barley, 4 boxes of Kleenex and a 4lb sack of sugar. Two full shelves of cake mixes and frosting caught my attention. I picked out two spice cakes and two tubs of cream cheese frosting. What the hell...I raised my chin in “Marie-Antoinette defiance” and murmured under my breath between clenched teeth: “Let them eat cake!” The man from the sugar isle smiled and chuckled: “You going to be OK?” Damn straight I'm going to be OK! I am my fathers daughter. We don't need no stinking toilet paper or toilet paper alternatives...I am a Bryan, we were born for this!

FAITH IN WHAT YOU CANNOT SEE

There are some who choose not to believe in what they cannot see. The same who ridicule believers in a God that to them, cannot be seen with the naked eye. I ask them now: can you see this “thing” which has caused you to hoard baby formula to put in your coffee because it last longer than milk( also disappearing from shelves at an alarming rate)? This thing you cannot see has driven you too stockpile more toilet paper than you can possibly use in a year. I pity those who choose to put their faith in microscopic organisms and butt wipe...but considers themselves too “intellectual” to put even an iota of faith in Jesus Christ. I was deserving of my own pity.

Fear is all consuming. How will I pay my bills until the markets recover? Will the markets recover? Will this hysterical hording cease before grocery stores run out of anything healthy to eat? What if I am a carrier of the virus and I give it to my neighbor with one lung and a compromised immune system? What if my kids are laid off from work? How will they manage? Is this the end? What if...what if.

I am not an idealist. Faith does not come easy to me. I wish it did. I have a tendency to focus on the “what ifs.” I play out every conceivable scenario my imagination can manifest and try to work out a “plan” for each.

1. Shelter: What if I lose the farm? Solution: I'll live in my LQ on my property in Oregon. I spent 2 months living in that thing with 2 horses and 2 dogs and was happier than I've been my entire life. I have too much shit anyway...time to downsize.
2. Food: What if we can't buy food? Solution: I can hunt and fish. I'm not much of a gardener – but my sister has the greenest thumb this side of the Jolly Green giant. Its not who you are, it's who you have in your clan.
3. Water: What if we lose power for an extended period of time? I know how to distill water until I get a hand pump put in the old well.
4. Mobility: What if there is a run on fuel and you can't fill up? Solution: Keep enough fuel to get out of Dodge with the horses. Horses = transportation. My dream come true.

I speak for myself only when I say the majority of what I fear comes from a lack of faith.

What if I put faith in what I cannot see? What if I give my fears to God instead of carrying them myself? What if I trust in Him to provide for my daily needs? The Bible says He will. Do I not trust in Him to do as He promises? Why is it so easy to believe the words you hear in the media but not in the Word of God?

What has this misdirected faith gotten me but stressed out and fearful; all over something I cannot see directly. Yes – we can feel the effects of this microscopic entity: the markets plummet – the media reporting doomsday headlines – people panicking – shelves emptying – jobs lost. The sky is falling...the sky is falling.

Just stop. The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different outcome. It's time to change the plan.

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