THE EYES HAVE IT
Wednesday, December 15, 2021
Deviations from daily routine – the absence of anything, can create emotional turmoil.
If it rains on a day we planned to golf, or it’s too cold for skiing, we adjust – shift to Plan B, but more significant deviations from expected norms shake us up a little.
Cases in point:
Recently, Joe Biden, reacting to fears about omicron variant spread, changed the rules for entering the U.S. with one day’s notice. It didn’t bother me, because I wasn’t travelling. For those who were, it was an unexpected deviation.
Another example we can all relate to was the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic we suddenly realized our governments had not anticipated.
Or climate change showing up without plans in place.
Or a backlog of containerships waiting to dock in ports worldwide because nobody planned for a snap-back in the economy as we exit (did we really?) pandemic-think.
Those are easy to wrap our minds around because we are in that leaky boat together, and media keep us all on the edge of our seats worrying about the next neglected problem that is exploding, and once that simmers down, the next calamity du jour is above the fold in the next day’s newspapers. Not just here, but everywhere.
But let’s look at this closer to home, to our own home, because of the absence of things, recognizing we can’t do everything we used to take for granted or acknowledging a decline of our capabilities; the changes in our reality are more personal, more private.
For me, the absence of my daily paper when expected is unsettling.
But I can get news in so many other ways. Still, I want inky fingers …
And that’s in our everyday day-to-day life – so imagine the challenge of people hit by natural disasters (i.e., floods in BC, tornadoes in Kentucky) or countless events around the world every week. Aside from the weather-climate chest thumpers pointing blame, the reality is we all need to be better prepared for surprises. Is this not the critical thing separating us from other primates and hooligans?
The absence of service on phones, internet access, or locked-up computers is also unsettling because we rely on them for communication, working, and daily functioning. I’m sure some people could live without running water or power, provided their phone was working. Or freak out when it isn’t – but that seems less severe (false conclusion) when everyone else’s phone isn’t working. That sounds fine in theory, but not so much if you are stranded in storms or floodwaters and service is out.
Being poised, staying calm – exercising rational thought, that’s what we need to do. It’s not usually as important as a pandemic or a tsunami, a nuclear plant meltdown, or a lunatic taking high office – we’ve all seen our share of those. But we see most of those at a distance, filtered by media and the spin machine, but we need to be ready up-close and local.
As for the absence of loved ones, many reunions are happening in airports around the world this week and next as people who’ve been apart too long get to reconnect, hug and squeeze, visit and get reacquainted.
Some of us (me too) whine sometimes about minor inconveniences – when our email is down for an hour or our phone is down for a day. But we get back to normal almost immediately. People go away, but they come back, they’re not lost, they were away just long be enough for us to be reminded how much we miss them, need them, want them back!
We’ve learned we cannot always trust the weather, the government, devices/technology, the news, and sometimes our own eyes and memory are dodgy, so in the end, what can we count on?
We can count on ourselves.
And we can count on others too, but not very many can be counted on under any circumstances.
Those people are precious treasures, and those too will fail or falter or let us down from time to time, but even when they do, we count on them, and we’d lost in life without them.
When eyes leak, that could be from sadness or joy or a leaky tear duct – but when we weep, we do it because we are deep in thought and deeper still in feelings.
Who misses that?
Too many miss that, but there is hope for everyone …
Reader feedback:
I'm very glad to read some good common sense about vaccination, it is also the very least we can do. Be safe, AG, Cancun, Mex.
Excellent suggestion, do a kind gesture a day will eventually makes a difference, AG, Cancun, Mex.
And, to Alberta residents only: THIRD ACTion Film Festival is doing a 50/50 raffle again – buy a ticket, be a winner + make the pot richer, for a great cause – draw date is Dec. 22nd.