Living in Strange Times [OPINION]

Like a B-rated movie, ‘Super Flu,’ ‘The Bug that Wrecked My Economy and Stole My Job,’ or ‘Honey, I Quarantined the Kids,’ we’ve made it to the climax of this COVID-19 disaster film. If this were a Bollywood flick, everyone would be dancing. With any luck, the credits will be rolling soon, and it’ll all be over.

But our fear is that we’ve all bought tickets to the movie marathon and don’t know it yet.

On Friday, many business owners will have Governor Greg Abbott’s blessing to reopen. Just how many businesses will decide to reopen their doors remains to be seen, but there are still several major questions that remain:

Will employees be willing to go back to work?

Will customers be willing to return to their favorite shopping haunts?

With millions of people out of work, does anyone have money to spend in retail shops?

Am I ever going to be able to get a decent haircut?

As I interact in the world, it seems to me the whole social part of this crisis is breaking apart. People are less willing to remain 6 feet apart from each other than they were just a couple of weeks ago. Some people are going in and out of store without masks.

I think a lot of people are simply tired of it all, and others are the sort to be rude.

From the time we are very young, we are told to be individual thinkers, not part of the crowd. We are reminded that we are the decedents of cowboys and waggoneers who left the status quo and challenged the unknown for a better life. On and on, you get the idea.

We are not taught to cherish rule following.

However, right now those rules could literately be the difference between life and death. Just because Texas is reopening doesn’t mean the virus has magically gone away. On April 28, Dallas County reported 135 new infections, the highest number of confirmed cases yet. This is not the time to be letting our guard down.

With more and more places opening back up, it’s more important than ever to continue adhering to social distancing and to continue using PPE and good hygiene (but let’s be real, THAT’S something everyone should have been doing in the first place).

Think about this: If you could save a life by grabbing a kid off a street, would you do it? If you could save a life by wearing a mask at the store, won’t you do it?