MY PERSONAL PANDEMIC POINT OF VIEW

    This all gets weirder by the day. It's hard... fighting through depression. I meditate, read and have the Bible read to me every day. But I don't know, maybe you're better at it than me, but it's really starting to get to me.
    The isolation is staggering. Nothing is normal, right? I know everyone's experiencing the same thing, but I'm starting to talk to my shadow and notice that it's following me. Oddly enough, I'm beginning to enjoy its company these days. I keep hoping that it might just talk back and carry on a conversation with me. This "being alone" thing through all this is like some sort of cruel form of punishment. You have to really like and be into yourself to actually enjoy it. Know what I mean? Up until now I loved being alone at times. Me time, you know... space, where no one intruded in my little slice of the life pie, but after 8 weeks... I'm like, "Hey, anybody want to share some pie? I'll grab some Cool Whip or real whipped cream!"
    I really want to believe there is going to be a lot of good come from this, but I'm beginning to have my doubts. I hate all the new lingo like "THE NEW NORM". What does that even mean? People talk about it like they have this deep sort of psychic understanding. Is this the zombie apocalypse? Or the sequel to Will Smith's, I AM LEGEND?
    And the mask thing is really starting to bug me. Is this a set up to the Jihad and the worldwide take over of radical Islam? Or is this a Lone Ranger episode and the Kemosabe's going to pull up in his Humvee named HairTrigger and stop the bad guys from hoarding all the paper products? Wait, did I just say something politically incorrect? For the first four weeks of this thing no one in my Whole Foods gave a rip. No masks, no gloves. Now it's signs everywhere and some of the people working there act offended if you're not complying. Hypocrites... give me a break. And what is this crazy stuff I'm seeing on the roads? People driving alone in their cars with a mask on? Who the hell thinks that's sane? What? Is the radio going to spit on you? Come on people... GET REAL!
    And this whole "can't go to church or synagogue" or whatever it is you attend has just gone off the edge. Let's get real and talk about God and creation, if you're smart enough to be into that sort of thing. God made us for interaction not isolation. To tell people they can't fellowship together for the sake of the greater good is just pure BS! It goes against every principle and the rules of love! Not one of us are on this planet because we willed ourselves into being. Maybe some tree hugger tinfoil hat types perhaps, but for the most part it took intimacy and interaction with another human to create life. And I'll just talk about Jesus right now... He came and died so that all of us who actually realize how messed up we are without Him can have... WAIT FOR IT... RELATING-SHIP WITH GOD! That's based solely in intimacy! Fellowship is personal, live, human to human interaction, it's not sitting somewhere watching a TV or smartphone screen and acting like it's the same thing. NOPE, it's not. 
    Ok, in the first few weeks as we were navigating the mirky waters of the COVID-19 it might have been a good idea... but enough already. This is boarding on socialism or communism. Big Brother, mind control. If they get you to comply without any resistance, they've lured you into a trap. History is full of such stories. And again, like the masks, we're being wooed into the NEW NORM! I watched my little church service online yesterday... and God bless all of them, but it was just not connecting. So what is the point and why do we keep letting them tell us this is the way it has to be?
    I don't know about you but one of the things I know about myself is I'm a touchy feely guy. I grew up in a family that kissed each other. Call it weird but we love each other. Hugging is not the "norm", it's necessity. My dad is almost 94 years old and to this day when I greet him or say goodnight or goodbye I kiss him... square on the lips. I was built for interaction, for intimacy and touch. I sat at the park the other day where I go and walk and I watched families and couples interact. They were holding hands and being intimate with each other. I found myself becoming envious, even downright emotional. Then I became a little mad. I've not been in relationship out of choice for the last five years and, for the most part, wanted nothing to do with it ever again. But this COVID thing has kicked the reality of not having it and all that it brings along with the realization of just how empty life is without it into high gear. I went from sensory deprivation to sensory revelation in a matter of 8 weeks.
    Now, I didn't say all that because I'm suddenly on the hunt, I'm not. But when you come to the point where you don't even know what touch is like anymore, you know you're in a bad place. When the Hallmark channel suddenly makes sense and you find tears running down your cheeks at the stupidest stories, you know it's gotten bad. I mean people substituted rubbing elbows for handshakes for God sakes. What's next, classes on tree hugging as an alternative? 
    Look, desperation is never a justification for jumping from the flame into the fire, but for me, the epiphany has been quite startling to say the least. I wonder what the birthrate will be between November and February next year? All these hospitals that are doing such bad business because the virus isn't really paying off like they hoped will be bursting at the seems in the maternity wards come winter.
    It really is disturbing to me because I realize that the freedom we have, or had, is the way God created us to be. And when those things are removed, it creates a tremendous emptiness and void... and when that's not replenished, the outcome is never positive.
    The more they seek to isolate us with their projections of doom and dread, fear and despair, the greater control we allow them to have. When they see they can get away with it and that we comply without resistance, power slowly drains from the brains that God gave us which are created like His... to function in wisdom and discernment. Just something to think about.

    Anyway... that's the way it is in my brain, May 12th, 2020!

Steven Bliss
© 5/12/2020