Anyone my age is in the at-risk group for suffering serious consequences from coronavirus. At the same time people have been kept from seeing others by lockdown orders, they seem to be thinking more about each other.
Children post comments on the internet venting their frustrations with their parents. This is an opportunity to show they care and help, and their efforts sometimes are ignored.
Generations pay attention to different stimuli. Children, who read stories about the seriousness of the virus, are annoyed their parents are ignoring their advice because the news shows they listen to are telling them the virus is a hoax, and everyone should go back outside.
I have a friend who tells me her son doesn’t want her to leave the house except to buy groceries and walk the dog. He would prefer she let her neighbors do her shopping.
She resists, she says because she likes to pick out things for herself.
It’s a quiet way of saying, I may be old enough to be vulnerable, but I’m not infirm. I’m quite capable of looking after myself.
These admonishments are ways family members, who may be reticent, can say I love you, I care, without actually having to show an emotion.
It’s even harder for friends and neighbors to make such emotional declarations. Their offers to go shopping aren’t just excuses to get out of the house. They’re ways to say "you matter to me."
I got an email from a friend today that just said the tests were negative. No prologue, no explanation.
I suspect this person was still running errands for others. He wasn’t just saying "I’m not infirm," but "I’ve always been someone who looked out for others. This is needed more now than ever. I can’t let my selfish concerns stop me from being who God intended me to be."
No comments:
Post a Comment