Observations

A few blogs back, I mentioned how many writers will be observing the human interaction as the coronavirus situation unfolds. So here are a couple of my observations.

1. Wow, the hoarding! That started much faster than I expected. I guess some people deal with the unexpected by grabbing a bunch of something (eggs?) and hugging it to their chest like Daffy Duck. “It’s mine! All mine!”

2. So much venting! I literally see messages from people that are, “if you don’t hear from me in two days, come look for my body!” That person has severe anxiety and depression, and I was really worried about them until the next note said, “Sorry about that, I’m better now.” Others keep up a constant stream of “this will be bad, so bad,” followed by “look, this is bad!”

What can you say? Most often, I let it go by. They’re reacting according to their nature. Sometimes I tell them to calm down. One person on Twitter keeps telling me I’m not an “expert.”

So what? How much of an expert do you need to be, to reach out to people who seem like they’re in distress?

3. People get really judgmental, really fast. It’s been disheartening to see the venom unleashed upon random strangers when some image gets shown around of people going to the beach, or a bar, or buying more bread than someone else thinks they deserve.

Friends, we don’t know those people. We don’t know if they intended to be greedy, or defiant, or anything else. (Except for the guy who bought up all the hand sanitizer in his city. What a creep!) Maybe the kids in the bar were supporting a friend who works there. Maybe the person with the bread has that many people to feed at home.

We don’t know why they’re making the choices they do. In fact, it’s none of our business. Yet the human drive to meddle rages on.

What about you? Are there any surprising reactions that you’ve observed?

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