THE expression does not say it all. Oftentimes, when something too dreadful comes our way and finally goes past, the relief that follows is always unforgettable. Truth is, that feeling is much better than the one we would’ve felt had that thing we dreaded never happened at all.
“Too close for comfort” is thus nothing but a close call, a close shave if you will. It’s like observing an approaching shark that then slowly turns away, as compares to seeing one that actually swims past your group. A whole world of difference.
Covid is literally all around now. It’s not the same as watching statistics slowly spike up on daily Covid-19 Information Center updates or hearing announcements by city health officials on the news and social media about dwindling bed space in government hospitals.
Now, one can actually paste up familiar faces in them statistics and the term “it only happens to others” is spat back at those who still believe everything is conspiracy and a hoax. I remember a neighbor who once told me “Covid is real after all!” after hearing the news of another neighbor’s positive test results. Funnier still, he said that a full year after lockdown, which means that, essential worker that he is, going out to work every day, he was also a silent non-believer. I hate to think of the risk he had taken, endangering his children and us his neighbors without us knowing it.
I too remember the early days of 2020 when the reported positive cases of covid at a government hospital seemed so distant and detached for us at first, until the day came when we heard about friends of friends, then friends and later, neighbors and finally relatives who have been confined there for treatments, thus joining in the statistic pile-up. Yup, covid is true after all.
At this, one really has to pause and wonder, why is it that it has to take us almost two years before some people could begin to circle their wagons, even as others still live dangerously? This is not just some dark menace that will swim away from us at the last moment, mind you. Surely, it’s going to get past us and then through everyone else. Saddest thing of it all is, not everyone will enjoy the relief that comes when all is over because some will not survive the storm. As the song goes, how many deaths will it take till we know, that too many people have died?
While covid remains relatable to only those who’ve had the closest brush, my thoughts always wander whenever I see others smirk at the reality of it all. God must really love them I think.
