The past 12 months have given me many moments of pause. Pause to think, evaluate, assess, listen and learn.
In no certain order, I have been humbled, grateful, scared as hell, questioning, angry and baffled. All due to a world I never expected to live in, a pandemic.
Sure, I’ve read about them in history lessons at school, but never did it come across my life expectations of having to live through one.
I have watched, with a certain feeling of remoteness and safety here in the North, as the world has gone through the terrifying grips of little or conflicting information, mass conformity with cooperative spirit, support and gratitude toward each other, willing to make sacrifices to help each other through; to now watching a COVID weary world, descending into division so deep it’s turned family members against each other, society questioning and, alarmingly, more actively defying authority of all kinds, selfishness, hate and actively hurting those of Asian ethnicity.
It’s like watching the world descend into madness. A Lord of the Flies situation on steroids.
What the heck is going on?
By the way, that feeling of remoteness and relative safety is long gone. It went the first time our numbers of COVID cases began to climb. We are not unaffected. And all that has affected the rest of the world has hit here too. The good, the bad and the ugly.
I want to personally climb to higher ground and take a better path. I want to thank our doctors and nurses and all health workers and support workers, more now than ever, as their last 12 months, I can’t even imagine. Thank you for fighting every day for us, to keep us healthy, alive and informed as best you could.
I want to thank our front-line workers, our teachers, our RCMP, our grocery workers, paramedics, and truckers for all that they are continuing to do, while risking their own health. You have all been our rock. Without you showing up every day, the rest of us would be toast.
I want to support our local restaurants and businesses from going under, by ordering take out food and where I can, shopping online at your stores for curbside pick-up if available, and, if not, coming in to shop when able.
Thank all of you brave parents who have taken on even more roles than you are used to. I bet you even learned new skills you never thought you would need. Good for you for taking it on.
You had the gift of time with your kids that some would never get to have. Thank you parents for holding it all together in your families and finding a way through.
I would really like to kick the rear ends of the person or people that burned part of the sign on highway 16 that said “RCMP matter” because I believe they do. I think everyone matters and should be made to feel like they do. What a crappy thing for you to do, smarten up and stop being destructive jerks.
I want to thank our senior citizens, who have been extraordinarily shut off, and lonelier than most. Some have lived through past pandemics, and I bet they are pretty unimpressed with how most of the world is now handling this one.
Thank you for doing your best, you are not alone and please hang in there.
And thank you to those who have done their level best to do what has been asked of them. It’s not forever and we should all know that .
You have been the silent majority. Thank you for showing calm, civility and compassion. You remind the rest of us how we should strive to be.
For anyone I left out, I didn’t do it knowingly, but I thank you too.
Lastly I want to thank all the kids in our community for being more adaptable and patient than most adults have been. Much has been asked of you, and you have had to give up a lot. You are not alone either, and it is impressive how resilient you are.
These are crazy times that I hope you never see in your lifetimes again. You give me hope for the world. Please accept my most sincere thanks.
If you want to do something positive out there, say thank you, be patient, be calm.
Think beyond yourself and help make our community a stronger one. We will get through this, but getting through it together would be the best of all.