As if this year has not been bad enough, we are now, with three days left to close it out and bang! Yet another piece of bad news and perhaps one that explains a lot. Maybe. Perhaps. It seems that a growing number of COVID-19 survivors, if that is the correct term, present with a most frightening effect after several weeks, even months of recovery.
They are fine, go back to work, join in family activities, all is great. Then boom! A little voice begins to tell them things, horrible things, terrible accusations, distortions of reality, all believable to them. Even as they know that something is wrong, this cannot be, they are plagued by the horrors this voice is telling them, always in their heads, terrorizing them and their loved ones.
Of all the aftereffects of COVID, this one frightens me the most. To suddenly lose oneself in a psychotic nightmare of a world, where who you were is no longer who you are, even as you know it is not so, you cannot help but believe it and even, in worst case, act on it. Frightening, yes? But wait, for there is more.
In a world gone off its tracks in this most awful of years, think how many of the leaders of the world have tested positive for the virus. Think how many have recovered after supposedly mild cases. Think how many of them seem mad, not angry, but crazed in their thoughts, plans and deeds. They bark at each other rather than talk and negotiate. They threaten, frightening threats, push nuclear arms races again, and use every new discovery of mankind in twisted fashion to harm other countries.
And, obviously, I look at Trump, taking a different perspective. The man has always been off, probably damaged by a dysfunctional childhood home, always plagued by both an inferiority complex and a vision of himself as as hero, the biggest winner of them all. Perhaps he even suffered one of the earliest cases of the virus, before we realized it was here, and that would explain his insane behavior and statements. His mad campaign over the results of the election in November is simply a symptom and a result of the virus. Hmm. Ya' think?
At the very least it makes it clearer, easier to explain, if not tolerate, his insane behavior. He crushed the very Party he had crushed already, as he made it over in his image - his god complex? He already had them terrorized to oppose him, to take any independent step whatsoever lest he not like that step and then the world would cave in on them, Chicken Little running around the Capitol building in droves!
How else do we explain him, and others of his circle, who engaged in treasonous behavior. One could question the water, the food, the air, the plastics, or we could simply be honest and say that the grown adults of this nation's political world had gone bonkers. Worse than that, a large potion of the nation's population had gone along for the ride, ramping up negative emotions, literally murderous behavior, and a growing inability to recognize reality, a mad inclination to pursue that which was already lost.
Am I writing this tongue in cheek? Maybe. Maybe not? But in this topsy-turvy world of the past year, nothing is out of reach, nothing impossible in a world gone mad. Putin has his ass kissed obsessively by Trump, who then sells the country down the river and allows Russia to attack us in cyber attacks, disinformation campaigns of huge proportions, interfere with our elections, like a third world banana republic! Tell me what else explains this and I will give it serious consideration.
So any, too many, people have become shapeless blobs in a mental and moral sense. They lost structure, spines, balls, let alone brass ones, character and morality. The ability to think independent of Trump became an impossibility. And so we suffered. And so the world suffered. And here we are in the worst economic crisis, one that promises - or threatens - to turn into one worse than the Great Depression, never mind the Great Recession. People are homeless, evicted, foreclosed upon, jobless, foodless, unable to care for family, unable to educate and feed and clothe and shelter their kids and hope of improvement is dim and far away. The numbers of dead, dying, sick, and the increased rationing of medical care is horrendous, unthinkable and yet it is so because we allowed the lies to exist and continue to falsely allay fears. That is until the deniers and their deluded believers fell ill and died too. Or recovered and became psychotic in a new syndrome.
All I know is that none of this year has any logical explanation. People lost their minds and became reckless in so many ways. Their mooring lines were brutally cut and the seas they were then sailing were rough and unforgiving. Worst of all, there appears to be no end in sight to this year. The calendar page may turn, and the days and weeks ands months will roll into each other, the dead filling the container trucks, families setting more unused place settings at the table, and all we are promised is a rough ride ahead and new strains coming down the pike. We are nowhere close to administering the present vaccines to the populations of the world, and yup, there it is, the new strain. Testing must be done now to see if the present vaccines will protect against that - and other strains right behind.
It might be that Rip Van Winkle had the right idea and went to sleep for twenty years The problem is that the world was not so different, was it? We need to face up to our problem rather than deny and run away. Maybe we do need to test the mental stability and capacity of people after the virus, especially the leaders and legislators of countries. For sure, it would not have hurt if we had done that to Trump long, long ago! If you are surprised at his crazed behavior, threats, and statements now - where the hell were you for the past four years?!
Sorry. Cannot resist, sad as it is to say it. Told ya' so! I really did.
May the new year that is arriving before we know it, be filled with recovery, with hope, with generosity of spirit and mind, with answers that help unite a divided country and a troubled world. May we return to full health in all ways, learn to live in peace with our neighbors, near and far, and may we all know prosperity and certainty in meeting the needs of us all.
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