Christmas Day 2020: one year of Covid-19

                            The above photo was taken on Christmas Day 2019. Covid was already with us but had yet to make its presence felt

What a difference a year makes. Many of us have endured such really hard and difficult trials, and may well face many more before this nightmare ends. Who can possibly know the number of people who have already succumbed to panic, despair, loneliness and hopelessness behind the closed curtains of their personal prisons? There have been days where I have been so demoralised, that if there had been a magic button I could have pressed to release me from this life, I would have gladly done so. But then I have somehow found the strength to continue, envisioning my mother at my side, taking my hand, helping me rise from my bed and face another dark day in this hellhole that is reality.

I refuse to give into despair. This year has not broken me. It has in fact shown me the valuable lesson that freedom and liberty should never be taken for granted; that everything you thought to be true can suddenly vanish in a heartbeat; that values we learnt as children can be completely inverted within the passing of a mere generation. Some things are so sacrosanct, that they should be fought for if necessary.

I have done my best to put my blind faith in those we endue with the responsibility of our protection. I have followed the advice as best I could, even when I could not understand the logic, or when contradictory and conflicting information was given. I have obeyed even when I knew that no government has any right to dictate what choices we make in our homes as a family unit; especially not in a country such as ours, pandemic or no pandemic. I'm quite an insightful person. I can sense when there is deliberate obfuscation or attempt to control others through panic and fear. The use of language becomes a tool that can be manipulated for good or for nefarious purposes. Words like 'mutant virus' for instance, would not have been used randomly without knowledge of the psychological impact they would bring. Meanwhile, certain people who take great delight in lecturing the public from their ivory towers on the importance of compliance and obedience to the rules, and reminding us of our civic responsibilities to protect others, have been observed breaching those same rules and exposing themselves as self-serving hypocrites.

Many of you may not even be aware of anything being amiss. You will be perfectly happy to comply with anything you are told, because big government knows what is best for you, and is just looking out for your interests. One day, the feeling that something is not quite right, will be too much to ignore. One day, you will eventually begin to question things. Only then, will you start to understand what I have been feeling for a while now. As for me, I anticipate the day of reckoning will come, as surely it will do, when people will finally be held accountable for their behaviour,  judged on their words and deeds, and found to be wanting.

Merry Christmas

Peter

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