A Bizarre New Normal?

How quickly life can change.

What at first seemed sort of strange, bordering on funny, is taking on the frightful specter of reality. Who would or could have ever imagined that a country like Italy would impose partial quarantine on so many of its citizens. China's response back in January seemed surreal and far away but now that our close neighbours have followed suit one can't help but wonder if it might happen here too.

Shaking hands or rather not shaking hands proves to be quite difficult and when we've finally managed to forgo the urge, we get trapped by the other person's hand being held out for shaking. Elbow bumps only work if the other bumpee is aware of what one is doing because else it tends to look like an aggression of sorts!

Washing hands often if not constantly is reassuring but sadly makes my hands dry and wrinkly. At least any lingering germs get washed down the drain.

The price of petrol is as cheap as can be at the moment but really not much use as most of us have decided against lengthy and unnecessary car trips. At least the cost of food should come down a bit. There are so many implications to what is happening daily that one can't begin to fathom it. This is the sort of emergency that our grandparents always asked us to save for and we with the ignorance of youth and the complacency of a cushy life have ignored.

They, the generation who only bought what they could afford to pay for with real money ( cash ) as opposed to borrowed money ( credit ), knew because they have lived through times where it was far from easy to put food on the family table.

Many people have bought into the illusion that buying everything they desire on credit is the way it is supposed to be done. I fear that there will be horrid times ahead for some. This view of mine is rather pessimistic and thus I do hope that reason will prevail and that the world takes on this virus the same way it does any other flu bug...

Biggi