The results of selfishness

It’s a GORGEOUS Day. The sun is shining, it’s warm, the trees and flowers are starting to bloom. The world is awakening from its winter nap. And Yet. As the fears of the virus have us in lock down mode, venturing out as little as possible, my response is to open the windows and let the fresh air in, to sit on my deck, talking to my neighbor who’s working in her yard, well over 6 ft away, but IT WAS A CONVERSATION WITH A REAL PERSON!! who I don’t live with, that was face to face, rather than on the phone or with a text chat or an email! I contemplate going to the park for a walk. With the playgrounds closed, there is almost no one at the park these days, and those who are stay far away from each other. I decide to stay home, and pick up twigs and sticks in my yard that have blown down with the recent rains. My husband runs a few errands and reports back when he returns that while many stores are closed, essential places of business like banks, groceries and pharmacies are open. Surprisingly, the hardware stores and batteries plus are considered essential stores and are open as well. He tells me that the grocery store has flour again, and he picked some up for me. Our son in Florida, is seething under quarantine restrictions. Apparently an employee came to work with a hangover (not the first time she’d done that) and decided she wanted to go home early, so she went to the doctor’s, told him she wasn’t feeling well and badgered him until he gave her a note saying she should stay home for 7 days. Now we all know from the news that if the doctor thought she might have been exposed to or have COVID 19, that she would be placed on a longer restriction than 7 days, but because her doctor told her to stay home for 7 days, EVERYONE, she had come into contact with at the office, now has to go into a 14 day self quarantine period because she might have exposed them. If she had simply called in that day, rather than coming in, they would have been able to continue with their “regular” routines. My son, as the manager, had already put “working from home” procedures into place, but now, based on someone’s selfishness, she has placed her co-workers in the position of being under self quarantined, which affects not just the office and the co-workers, but their families as well. In this time of stress, we need to not only take care of ourselves, but we all need to recognize how our actions affect everyone around us, not just ourselves.