I Need Less Covid: But Not Why You Think

Day 20 of my #thirtydaysofless challenge was "Less Covid".

OK, maybe this one isn’t your typical de-cluttering challenge.

But later today, I will be in a fortunate group able to get my Covid-19 vaccine. It seems almost surreal at this point to be heading there after everything we’ve been through in the last 13-14 months in Ontario. I am truly hopeful that we are able to make better progress in the coming weeks and months than it seems like we have been able to so far.

But the reason I wanted to speak to “Less Covid” is this. Covid-19 and all the issues surrounding it, from the perspectives of health systems, politics, accessibility, mental health, religion, education, human rights, and money; have created a divide between us as people, a community, a province, and a country, in so many ways.

While the pandemic has exposed important weaknesses in social systems that most certainly must be addressed in the future; sadly, it has also exposed some of the worst parts of our own intolerance and inflexibility.

It has exposed many of us as utterly dogmatic in our belief systems.

We seem to be truly unable or unwilling to understand that many different parts of society can all have opposing views, but yet to some degree at least, still all be right at the same time.

We truly spend so much time and effort convincing others of our views, while so seldom doing the opposite. Think about this; if you are convinced your views are already right, are we not better to truly listen to others views, and to be introspective on our own? Does that not serve a greater purpose?

When I wrote recently about how we all need to understand our own roles in how we got here, so that we can also understand how to get where we need to go as a society, this point was proven once again. My Facebook comments feed on the article was filled with back-and-forth conversations (some just plain rude), very few of which either tried to appreciate another point of view, nor consider that any of us should bear any culpability in our current cultural and social issues.

Perhaps exposing ourselves this way is a good thing, but amongst everything else, I’m just tired of it. So, for today, just less Covid please.

Today’s Challenge: Get Your Vaccine, if you're able, and willing.