A Matter of Perspective

“Those rules don’t pertain to me....” If you think you are seeing new things due to COVID-19, you are right—and wrong. Let me explain. Yes, we are seeing a lot of “new” things with this “novel” coronavirus. (Novel in this sense means new.) But we are also seeing a lot of “old” things. The biggest “old” thing I have noticed is all the people who assume that “those rules don’t pertain to me.” It started with the toilet paper hoarding. People who engaged in this behavior decided that the rules of sharing did not pertain to them. Then it moved on to the stay at home order. Many people continued life as “normal” by going out and shopping and socializing and doing whatever because... “Those rules don’t pertain to me....” The new things we have seen as a result of COVID-19 have been extensive. They have been stressful and depressing and frustrating and annoying. But seeing people disregarding the “rules” is nothing new. In fact, it is as old as time itself. There have always been people who have lived their lives as if “those rules don’t pertain to me.” In the Garden of Eden, Eve assumed that “those rules don’t pertain to me” when she ate from the forbidden fruit. Adam did likewise and we’ve been paying for that since the beginning. In the book of Ecclesiastes chapter 1 verse 9, King Solomon laments, “What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.” Nothing new under the sun. It’s a phrase many of us are probably familiar with. It really applies here in this unique state we are in with the many changes it has forced upon us. But this has all been done before. There have been plagues before COVID-19 and there will be plagues yet to come. There have been monumental changes thrust upon the human race and there will be more changes coming. Those rules don’t pertain to me. We’ve seen that before, too. We have to use good judgment when it comes to rules and whom they pertain to. If you are out shopping and you don’t need to be, think about the store employees who do have to be there. (I know those of you who believe that the rules don’t pertain to you, will skip this part because, well, it doesn’t pertain to you!) If we don’t follow the rules, then we put others at risk. Just because you aren’t sick or aren’t showing signs of illness, does not mean that you are not sick and won’t be spreading illness everywhere you go. Just because you aren’t sick doesn’t mean you won’t get sick while you are traipsing about! I don’t like staying home all of the time, either. But I realize that people who may be just a tiny bit smarter than me have put these rules in place for a reason. I may not like it, but if I adhere to the rules, I might prevent someone else from getting sick or getting sick myself. Sometimes, whether we like it or not, those rules do pertain to us and we better start following them.