There is this beautiful option on Facebook that lets you 'snooze' a friend's posts for 30 days so their 'stuff' doesn't clog up your feed if they are wound up over things. In the past, I have rarely used this feature. In theory, if you are my friend, I am interested in what you are doing. If I am not, I wouldn't have become your friend, right? However...
Coronavirus has brought out the brightest and the ugliest in people, hasn't it? There is so much beautiful, loving, giving vibes going out into the world. People everywhere sewing masks, putting rainbows in all their windows, donating food....businesses giving discounts and holding payments and making sure kids have internet and meals...teachers reaching out to their kids through any means possible. Prayer circles and online churches, birthday car parades and letter writing campaigns....so much good.
And the ugly. The ugly is filling up my feed and it just needs to go. I have snoozed anyone spewing the ugly. Here is my very blunt, very passionate, very measured response to all the people complaining that they can't go boating right now. Grow the fuck up. Yup, used the f-word. Don't even feel bad about it. As of 10 a.m. today, 23993 people in Michigan have Covid and 1392 people in Michigan have died. One hundred and eight THOUSAND, five hundred and three people have died in the world. 108,503. Dead. And you are being asked to sit in your very comfortable, heated home - stocked with plenty to eat, if not your first choices - with delivery and take out available - with Amazon and everyone shipping you anything you could need (but not in 2 days) - with Netflix and internet and smart phones and a hundred other things to do - with the ability to go out and walk or bike or fish from a dock or ROW a boat - safe with your family. But all I have heard in the last 24 hours is....how dare they tell me I can't go out on my boat. Do you hear how incredibly first world self-entitled that sounds?
There are 108,503 problems more important to deal with than your access to a motorboat. First, all the people that died and their grieving families. Second, all the people struggling with the diagnosis right now and hoping to be a positive statistic - and their families that can't be with them and are sitting home worried out of their minds. Third, all the people not affluent enough to own a motorboat - that are probably stretching their dollars hoping to make it until the unemployment shit show sorts itself out. Fourth, all the kids that have had their lives upended - seniors that lost their graduations, athletes that lost their season, all kids that were struggling in school and don't have the support at home to keep up that will start next year way behind. Fifth, all the at risk population like the elderly or handicapped that are isolated and going downhill from it - or worried because they know if they get it, the odds are stacked way against them. Sixth....well, you get the idea.
If you have your bills paid, food in your cupboards, family tucked in and safe - quit complaining about freaking boats. You are beyond blessed. Take all that time you would have spent boating and do something to put some good out into the world. Or at least quit spewing all your negative all over my world. I am trying to hold up my family in strange, uncertain, challenging times and you are shitting on my socially distant parade. Cease and desist.
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