Death and indifference

Have we all become inured to deaths caused by Covid-19? Every day the front page of our newspapers and the top of the broadcast news highlight the number of new cases and the mounting death toll. Odious comparisons are made with other jurisdictions; pundits talk about deaths per one hundred thousand; words such circuit-breaker and lockdown take on new meanings.
Obituaries cite Covid as the cause of death. But, the problem is that there is no means of grieving. Funeral services will be held at some future, unspecified, date. There’s havoc being wreaked in long-term care facilities where those who die in such woebegone places or hospital ICU units are not surrounded by loving family as in the past.
Moreover, many individuals have turned social distancing into full avoidance. We have become paranoid about someone coming toward us who is not wearing a mask. A sneeze or a cough let loose nearby sends us scuttling for safety. The paucity of concerts, movies, gallery outings and the like have turned us into hermits. For some, a barbecue restaurant doing business when it should have been closed, becomes a flashpoint for irate “freedom” fighters, one of whom spat at police
During all these shenanigans there is too little community-based activity and not enough thought for the plight of others. What is happening to our world? While no one wants to die, is this the sort of place anyone would want to live? What if we survive and the world is forever changed because caring has disappeared? Let us hope that, after the cure, kindness returns.