SENDING PRAYERS AND SYMPATHY AND NEXT TIME LISTEN?

If your son or partner went out in the rain and you warned “you will get a cold-come inside now” and he says ” i can never get a cold, you have no clue,” and doesn’t and he ends up getting a cold, how much sympathy is deserved? Will you over strain your bedside efforts to offer tea and sympathy? You were not so clueless as he said. His ignorance now costs you.

No one wants our loved ones to suffer but what if they acted irresponsibly and exposed themselves to sickness totally ignoring us or the best medical advice? And at the same time relying on us as primary carers. Could we add to the sympathy, a teachable moment and say, next time listen. Too much sympathy in this context feels like complicity, and lets you off the hook for the ilnness you brought on yourself.

Whereas our kid whom we love or our boss who we cannot stand get the flu we say sorry, because their behavior did not bring it on. They did not ignore our advice offered in their best interest.

This show of sympathy from some of us, including me, dare we admit, sounds a little sus..we know its the decent thing to do but hard to really do it convincingly. What we mean is sorry you did not listen. Sorry you did not care. Sorry you put so many at risk with your rallies. And sorry you got sick and your wife too. See, its what we told you.

And along with sorry, we are scared if the President with daily tests and an army of military medicine to defend and protect him gets it, what chance do us ordinary citizens have. And who will fly us to walter reid hospital? Our taxes at work.

When the guy who told us we will not get it, gets it. Seems like the doctor encouraged the infection. And now we are supposed to feel sorry for the doctor? I hope he gets well but only after the nation finds its own vaccine on Nov 3. Then, we wish you a long and happy convalescence.

If you made the nation sick before you got sick, if you treated the plague with contempt and it came for you, the greeks called it poetic justice and hubris and comeuppance. And they knew a thing about the deceits and Trojan Horses of the human mind. Sympathy in this dilemma feels like fake news. Outrage might be more appropriate. The Greek Chorus first warn the Hero “Dont do it Dont do it” and then “We told you. We told you.” They were not offering bromides or grief counseling. They were saying, Reality bites. Take it seriously. If you don’t, Fate wins.