Translation
When people say “herd immunity” is preferable and won’t stop posting articles about it, I hear eugenics.
When people say “conspiracy” and “socialization is important for our mental health and that is as important for our immune systems as anything else so I personally feel free to not socially distance and wear a mask though even though that is what is recommended because really this is all just big government trying to control us,” what I hear is that you don’t care and you believe my life is expendable.
When people only want to talk about the possibility of the coronavirus being far more widespread than previously thought and therefore the death rate being lower than previously believed, what I hear is that the thousands upon thousands of deaths themselves don’t matter.
When people say that part of the skill of grieving is learning how to surrender, what I hear is dollar signs ringing in the background like a cash register because to surrender in this way requires knowing we are secure enough to do so, and not everyone is afforded the same opportunity to deeply feel all their feelings and give over to the waves of the ecstatic experience in the same way.
When people say that “the earth is being cleansed right now” and this is a good thing, what I hear is eco-fascism.
When people say, well “I’m staying safe by staying home all the time and only having my food service delivered and am eating all organic and taking extra precautions to stay healthy,” what I hear is privilege and veiled victim blaming, relieved to “not be one of them over there.”
When people say “it’s worth it for the economy,” what I hear is a certain part of humanity seems prepared to sacrifice a percentage of the population, of humans who are especially vulnerable to dying from this disease, for the sake of the economy or their right to gather in groups or their right to have guns or to protect their own personal freedoms. And yet in this grim macabre scenario, these are the very people who find the idea of government restrictions dystopian. So what I hear when they say sacrifices, is sacrifice other’s actual lives for the sake of my own wants, as has always been true.
When people (usually white women) say “this virus is an initiation,” what I hear is that they believe illness and death and suffering in a severely traumatic way is necessary for growth and that some lives are expendable and required for their own personal growth process and that is so fucked up I don’t even know what to say to that.
When people say “this virus is a blessing because of what it is teaching us, what I hear is someone who is not living in an area where people are dying by the hundreds and into the thousands and they do not know where to put all the bodies, and someone who is not houseless and cannot stay safe, and someone who is not having to go into work everyday not knowing if they will be safe, and someone who is not being disproportionately affected because of racism, ableism and classism. What I hear is someone whose blessing comes at the cost of mass loss of life and other people’s trauma.
When people say that vaccines are cool but grieving should probably be our first line of defense, which makes no sense at all, what I hear is helping to save the lives of the most vulnerable right now is less important than inserting myself as an expert on being a wise guide in these times.
When people say, “I can’t possibly live on this much a month,” what I hear is that they never considered that disability is actually much less than that a month and yet they had no problem with that and seemed to think that was a handout of some kind except now that they are the ones who are in need and illness is imminent, everything feels different.
.
When people say I love you, what I hear is, I care.
When people say, what is this like for you, what I hear is, I am curious to know your own particular situation because I truly care.
When people say I am grieving and do not know how to digest this much loss all at once, what I hear is, I care.
When people say, I won’t post articles that claim to give real information about a virus unless they have real science and ethics in them what I hear is, I care.
When people say, “there is no right way to do this in the day by day and there are no gurus and no one can really tell you ‘the way’ because none of us have ever lived through this yet so stay awake to those giving themselves spiritual and somatic authority in this moment, what i hear is, I care.
When people say I don’t know but I can be in the unknowing alongside you, what I hear is, I care.
When people say this is what I have to share and I am sharing it, what I hear is, I care.
When people say I will sacrifice some of my own comfort and wealth so others can be safe and live, what I hear is, I care.
When people say I believe you, what I hear is, I care.
