Looking Death straight in the eye

Watching the news has become similar to glancing at obituaries, something you do almost without thinking. On TV we see maskless people become the proverbial dead men walking, ambling slowly to their deaths. All the while looking death straight in the eye and saying I'm not the droid you're looking for except, in this case, it could very well be them. 

I'm watching people do the most foolish things because they don't believe that the pandemic is real. Or if they believe that it is, in fact, a real thing it isn't going to affect them. No, not for them the overflowing COVID ward. Not for them, the emergency triage set-up in a converted hospital parking garage. These folks think that they are immune because of some convoluted reasoning that exists only in their feeble brains and fuck all the rest of us. Yeah, the chosen ones will survive this pandemic and the rest of us are damned to suffer. I truly do not understand the selfishness of those folks around here that think masks diminish them or somehow impinge on their personal freedom. 

Or maybe, they have resigned themselves to death and are spending their last days on earth doing as they please and fuck all the rest of us. 

I'm just so damned tired of this me-first mentality that far too many people seem to think is appropriate. Trump is just the most visible manifestation of that me first libertarian attitude that too many believe is their own manifestation of American exceptionalism.

I'm just too angry.

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I wrote a post about combat breathing that I never posted. Part of the reason it never saw the light of day was because I was truly angry the day I wrote it. I'd had only one day of real happiness after the election was called for the Biden-Harris ticket. The next day it was back to WTAF is going to happen now or WTAF is Trumpito going to do now that he's lost.  Combat breathing is basically centering  yourself, slowing your breathing down and giving you time to reset and focus on your goal.* In my case, it was and still is keeping my eyes on the January 20th, 2021 swearing in of Joseph Robinette Biden, Jr. as the 46th President of the United States of America.

I sincerely hope that we, as a Nation, can find a way to care for each other and provide universal healthcare, paid leave for workers, and assistance for small businesses. We have to find a way, as other countries have done, to make it possible for people to weather mandatory lockdowns until this pandemic is under control without food insecurity or fear of eviction for non-payment of rent or mortgage payments.

I'm tired of being angry.

*Simply put, combat breathing involves counting to four for each step of the breathing process. Breath in, count to four. Hold your breath, count to four. Exhale, count to four. This process can act as a soft reset for your nervous system and calm the shakes faster.