Welcome To the Pity Party

It has been 12 weeks since I heard that pop which signified the dislocation of my shoulder and tearing of my labrum. Since then I have gone through a range of emotions but one thing has remained constant. As time has progressed, my pain has gotten worse and the list of things I can no longer do has grown. First it was exercises I couldn’t do. Then it was things I couldn’t wear and now it has evolved to basic functions I can’t perform.

This past week, I progressed to the point that I can no longer dress myself. Talk about humiliating. I am a 45 year old who can no longer dress myself. I am very lucky because I have a husband who is happy to help me but what would I do if I didn’t?  While I recognize how luck I am I also can’t help but be sad about it.  I know that once I am fixed up I will get better and be able to do those things again but in the moment I just can’t force myself to think that way. 

So, welcome to the pity party. I’ll probably be partying for another 3 weeks. At least I can see the light at the end of the tunnel now but that is small comfort as my cannot do list continues to grow. 

Fear Mongering

 When I worked as a meteorologist, I noticed certain meteorologists really liked snow so whenever there was even the smallest possibility of snow, they would forecast it. I called those meteorologists snow mongers. They gravitated toward the outcome they wanted. 

In the years prior to the recent pandemic I learned a number of things. I learned not to trust politicians for obvious reasons.  The Jerry Sandusky incident and subsequent slander of Joe Paterno by the media taught me to not trust the media. They don’t report just the facts and let viewers or readers formulate their own opinions, they report the facts they want you to hear and the opinions to accompany those facts.  I also learned not to trust most businesses.  The primary aim of a business is to make money not to help the public. Pharmaceutical companies are a prime example of this given the significant number of lawsuits against them. 

Enter a pandemic and the primary entities calling the shots are politicians, the media and the pharmaceutical companies. The media is spreading fear to get more viewers/readers, the politicians are falling for it and the pharmaceutical companies are profiting from that fear possibly at the cost of our future health and safety. 

I find myself wondering why so many people are not reading the scientific, peer reviewed studies that are being published that are disputing a lot of the “facts” being spread. Censorship is the answer. If someone tries to talk about one of these studies that is against the popular opinion, it gets removed from most social media platforms.  I didn’t want to believe it was true but I’ve seen it happen myself. A little 1984 with a twist of Fahrenheit 451 anyone?

Why are we as a society not fighting this?  Many people just don’t know this is happening or don’t want to hear about it.  The media, government and drug companies are turning us against each other by fear mongering. Our brains are being hard wired to shame and not show kindness. To blindly believe and not question.  Only when we start listening to both sides can we develop an opinion of our own and start sowing kindness and understanding. But that takes courage and in this age of fear mongering courage is in short supply. 

When will we as a society develop the courage to overcome our fear and listen to one another with open minds?  That is how we are going to beat this pandemic, not by getting a shot every 6 months.