If I am to be honest, I didn’t realize the gravity of (COVID-19) until a few minutes ago.
I normally attend mass at Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church in Atlanta, GA on Saturday at 5pm. The attendance isn’t as massive as the Sunday crowd, and it allows me to receive God’s word in a more intimate setting. With the recent closures of many businesses due to the coronavirus pandemic, I decided to check my church’s website for service cancellations, just to be on the safe side. To my surprise, every mass this weekend had been cancelled. Every. Single. One. That, is when the severity of this moment truly hit me. This disease that I initially dismissed might change the way that we live not only in America, but the entire globe.
Born in the middle of July, I’m what many people consider a summer baby. I love being outdoors, and I marvel at the sight and emotions that nature gives me, and regardless of my mood and the time, a warm, summer day always puts me in a positive state of mind. But, on this beautiful Saturday afternoon, I find myself stuck in the house, as many of us are. Earlier this week, a trip that I had been planning for months came to a streaking halt – the city of Savannah cancelled its annual St. Patrick’s Day parade on the Riverfront. I was devastated, due to my anticipation, not due to any empathy towards the people and businesses affected by this situation at the time. As the days progressed, plenty of events were postponed, and venues shut down, indefinitely.
Donovan Mitchell (R) and Rudy Gobert (L), two NBA players with confirmed coronavirus infections.
Everything came to a head on Thursday morning.
Nearly every sports league had cancelled all upcoming games and competitions until further notice. “Whoa,” I said to myself. America has always put money over morals, so the fact that these sports entities that rake in billions of dollars annually were willing to shut down all operations meant to me that this COVID-19 “pandemic” wasn’t as harmless as I originally thought.
There are so many facets to the aftermath of this disease. The public’s reaction has been almost overwhelming. Otherwise heavily populated areas look like ghost towns, the stock of many grocery stores have become depleted, and we tend question physical interaction from people, even our friends and family. On Friday, my employer implemented a plan for us to work from home, in order to minimize the possibility of exposure to the disease. “Social distancing” is the phrase that the media has been using lately. It made me think: “Is this a result of the coronavirus disease, or have we as a culture already been moving towards this way of living?” Since the infancy stages of the social media era, physical interaction has been trending towards an unparalleled direction. Face-to-face meetings are becoming a thing of the past, and actual phone calls are foreign to many of the people who were born past the turn of the century. I enjoy the advantages that technology has provided me, but I try to never get lost in it, because it can easily consume your life if you let it.
As you may have realized, I am a fairly religious person – I practice Christianity to be specific. In the 40 days that precedes Easter, as Catholics we are required to fast from something that we deem to be negative, or detrimental to our well-being. Whether it be something material, a habit, or behavior; it is all up to the participant. One of the things I decided to fast from is social media. It was becoming much too time consuming and was having an extremely negative effect on my mental health. What makes my hiatus from social media’s “Big 3” (Instagram, Facebook and Twitter) unfavorable is that don’t receive my information as quickly as I’m used to. I have noticed how cleanliness has become such a priority for many people in recent days. I’ve always believed that proper hygiene should have always been of the utmost importance, so I can say at least one positive has come from this tragic situation.
Cabin fever has yet to set in for me, but I must admit; being confined to my own faculties has given me an opportunity to truly reflect. Today has been productive both mentally and physically, and sometimes God has his (or her) own way of making us reset in this constantly moving world that we live in. My prayers go out to everyone that has been affected by the coronavirus, and I hope that this disease’s immediate impact subsides sooner than later. But in the meantime, use these moments that you have with yourself wisely, because this life doesn’t afford us that option very often.
As always, I appreciate you all for reading. Be safe out there.
- Okla