Postmortem 2

Pandemics bring out the best and the worst in people.  I just heard on the Sunday Edition On CBC this morning about a woman in Toronto refusing to let anyone come anywhere near her, even while they were respecting the two metre distance (which I also endorse).  She also covered the neighbouring bench to the one she was seated on in a park all strewn with her personal objects and bags and packages.  Then, she began to pray on her rosary.  Michael Enright, the host of this program could not help but comment cynically on this, saying that she was likely thanking her own personal heaven for small mercies.

Now, I don't know what really motivated Michael to say these things, but I really don't blame him, given how clearly this woman provides a very bad optic for the church, and for the Crucified Lord that she is purported to represent.  By the same token, I do not know this woman, nor anything about her life.  I do not know the state of her mental health, if she is emotionally fragile, if she has been badly hurt or traumatized by others, if she herself has been gravely ill in the past, or has underlying conditions that would make her particularly vulnerable to the virus.  I know none of these things, and as much as I am inclined to share the smirk with Michael, I think I am going to sit this one out.

Walking outside, while taking care to distance myself when appropriate, I cannot help but wonder at the diversity of responses I have been seeing about this pandemic.  There are those who are so scrupulous about avoiding me and others as to seem thoroughly neurotic and perhaps paranoid and mentally and emotionally unbalanced.  But again, I do not know anything about their life circumstances, nor can I read their minds or their souls.  Then there are others who appear so insouciant and indifferent, that once today, in a store, I had to tell someone to please keep his distance, and for the simple reason that I myself could be an asymptomatic vector, though I really don't think that I am, but who only knows?

I cannot think of a time when kindness has been so important in the way we conduct ourselves with others, especially towards strangers.  I am not talking about mere niceness, nor civility, but real heart-felt compassion.  That's right, Gentle Reader, I am challenging us all to really love one another from the depths of our hearts, because that is what is going to get us through this, and not really much else.  Ta-ta for now.