During these very uncertain times, I feel we need to be especially conscious of the words we use and the way our words are perceived by others.
At a time when everyone is scared and nervous, something even more important than kindness is that of empathy.
One thing that is certainly not going to help during this time is panic. We have a culture of panicking in our midst. We try to find order in the chaos by finding practical ways to fake our brain into thinking that everything is OK. This is why people are stockpiling toilet paper for the next 30 years and fighting old grannies in the Clicks aisle for the last Vitamin C pill.
The toilet paper and pills are not going to save you. I'm pretty sure the word 'pandemic' doesn't mean that some essential oils and hand sanitizer are going to prevent you from contracting the disease if you are in direct contact with a confirmed case. If we look around at the first world countries experiencing major lock-downs and quarantines, I think we as South Africans have to acknowledge that our president did the right thing by trying to stop the spread as quickly as possible. Some may think these were extreme measures, but I am sure that just two weeks ago Italy or France may have thought the same thing.
I urge you to have empathy for the people around you. I feel that there has been a lot of much-needed social media attention paid to those less privileged than us, and more likely to suffer the severe effects of this disease. It is such a sobering thought that we always complain about what we have, yet there are always those that have so much less. We need to practise having more gratitude for the things we have in our lives. This virus may very well bring disadvantaged communities to their knees and this cannot be ignored.
I ask you to look at this from another angle. Spare a thought for those that have contracted the disease. Those travelers, who brought COVID-19 with them, have basically been shunned. The media continually reports on the infection rate as if they are simply statistics, not human beings behind the numbers. Spend a moment thinking - how scared must these people be? How must they be feeling? They must be wracked with feelings of regret and guilt too. We are constantly tracking new confirmed cases - spare a thought for the innocent mom who has caused a school to self-isolate or the young adult exploring the world who has infected an elderly relative. Can we pause and think for a moment how our absolute panic and need for information has affected their lives? How scared they must be? Every time we hear of another confirmed infection in our community, we panic and want to immediately oust the source. Spare a thought for their feelings of trepidation and fear. No sane person would knowingly infect others.
I just feel at a time like this, empathy is needed. We seriously need to start thinking about others and not just ourselves.
We need to be more careful about what we post on social media and what we share online.
I am so guilty of this - the moment I heard about the virus I only thought about my family and how it would affect us. I went and stocked up on medication (nothing crazy, just one of each). I aim to be a better human during this time of uncertainty and fear.