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Nobody seriously likes restrictions, but most of us put up with them and do the best we can under the circumstances. We like to think that we have free will in all our choices, within reason; and we do because God always gives us free will, for He created us with it (Proverbs 16:9). We can make choices relevant to our stage in life. As long as the law of the land is adhered to then all should be well in our lives...right? Human nature is a funny thing isn’t it; sometimes we find it frustrating in others but not so much when aimed at ourselves. Maybe one rule for ourselves and another for others depending on what situation applies is how some folks like to live. The truth is none of us are exempt from the law and we have discovered during this year of 2020 that laws can be altered or modified along with certain restrictions put in place “for the greater good” and these can change rapidly, even daily if warranted. People are not used to this but we find ourselves facing a time unlike at any other time we have known throughout our lives.
During the majority of this pandemic year of COVID it has been incredibly interesting to me how people react to the wearing or non-wearing of masks and/or gloves, whether they social distance or not, and how they behave in public. Speaking for our local area in Adelaide one would not know that COVID was happening in our state due to low numbers of infections and deaths until just recently, in mid November when an alarm was sounded. Some referred to this as Panic No. 2 after the initial Panic No. 1 occurred earlier in the year when toilet paper was wiped off the shelves in all of our supermarkets. I guess not many have bidets installed in their bathrooms here hence the massive desire for copious amounts of paper to be stockpiled. Aside from seeing the craziness of this by using humour, again people immediately ran to the shops to grab as many packets as they could before rationing began. It only took 24 hours of panic buying to make a “clean sweep”.
Psychologists tell us that it is a form of control when people find themselves in situations that seem out of control for them. This is understandable to a degree yet we do not need to import any toilet paper or paper products from overseas. We have huge forestry plantations in the south-east of our state near Mount Gambier where factories take the pulp and manufacture toilet rolls as well as tissues, hand towels, and other paper products. There is no shortage of supply but people will continue to be people, ignore the advice and behave with mass hysteria which is not helpful and very ugly to behold, especially when fighting breaks out over a multipack or any pack for that matter.
There was one distinguishable difference between Panic No. 1 and Panic No. 2 scenarios that I noted this time at the shops. There were a few single wrapped rolls of the thinnest (see-through) quality left on the top shelf of one store, which is rather humorous. I guess whoever bought them in the first round decided that they were not worth it the second time. They would be right. Bottom shelf quality sitting literally on the top shelf — “top shelf” is a phrase used to mean the best quality one can buy. Instead, this toilet paper is of the absolutely lowest quality imaginable. What a topic to be writing about! If anyone ever said to me just one year ago that toilet paper would feature in one of my articles I would have laughed. The pandemic is a serious matter not to be downplayed but we do need appropriate humour to get through the difficult times, and if we cannot laugh at ourselves then we need to “get a grip” and see from a wider perspective.
One thing I learned about myself during this latest short-lived lockdown was the stark reality that I have become used to the wonderful blessings of living in Australia for which we indeed have great abundance of food and beautiful produce. We are truly blessed to enjoy these blessings from God yet two of the usual things I enjoy were unavailable to me while the lockdown occurred. It wasn’t toilet paper as I like to purchase an extra pack or two when on special so we always have enough for a couple of weeks or so. It was tinned tuna in olive oil, sandwich style. There were plenty of other tuna varieties but not the one I always purchase. I remember standing there looking at the other boxes of small tins hoping that somehow mine were misplaced but they were not — I even searched and scoured the labels carefully. My mind had some difficulty grasping this and could not accept the reality. After what seemed like many minutes, but was most likely only a minute or so, eventually I had to admit defeat; at least it felt like defeat to me as I could not produce the thing I wanted. The other product was milk from Paris Creek which is locally and organically produced, full fat, unhomogenised and from bio-dynamic conversion farming principles. There was plenty of other milk but not what I am used to. My comfort zone was interfered with and I didn’t like it — I was so disappointed in myself. Then I thought about what my grandmother told me when they lived through World War II and how they fled their country to eventually escape to Australia. Each child was given one piece of fruit on xmas day which was as “hard as a rock” and they needed to throw the fruit against a wall in order to soften it up enough to eat it. They never knew when they could eat or even feel safe. I really do need to remember these things and remind myself to have perspective.
Getting back to how we now live our lives under various restrictions, we can choose to accept these or not. If we do not accept the changes willingly and even actively go against them then we are rebelling against the new laws put in place for quarantining, and for social distancing — which seems to be hit or miss depending on whether people want to do the right thing or otherwise. So far I have not seen any social distancing that is really what it should be. I base this on various factors but mainly on time. People either don’t want to wait and let others go first when they were waiting longer, or they are in a rush therefore they skip queues, try to get into lifts/elevators despite the two person limit, pretend they don’t know the rules, or act all angry and “put out” because they should be doing the right thing but think that they are exempt, depending on their excuse or reason for justification.
We have seen this on the roads for a long time now with road rage if one drives at the usual designated speed. In addition to road rage we now have even more rage as people get to their destinations and decide for themselves they will do whatever they need to in order to get in and out as quickly as they can. Just last week in our local shopping mall a man surveyed the length of the queue to get into a supermarket and decided he would try to push in next to me. With one hand I deftly and subtly moved my trolley just at the right time (a handy and great social distancing tool, and I do not go anywhere without one these days) in order for him to be discreetly blocked and prevented from jumping the queue. He then walked right round the mall and tried the other side closer to the front but realised that people were just not going to let him in. He was not old, he had two legs, and two arms for that matter, he was tall and strong looking with no obvious impediments. Just cheeky and impatient. Some people do not want to wait and think they are above the law whether they agree with the law or not. Not on my watch if I can help it! Now if the person had been old or frail (more so than myself) I would happily grant them to go ahead of me.
Nothing should surprise me anymore but it does. Restrictions can bring out the best or worst in human nature. So what should we do? Should we accept some or all of the restrictions? We should unless they go against what God says in the Bible. Do they? Quarantining is not new to God because He made the laws on this. God quarantines the sick, not the healthy (Leviticus 13 and 14). This is right and good. Humans seem to have things backwards but then again they are not reading the Bible to find out how this should be done. Social distancing is a good concept to protect oneself and others because we know that people still go out even when sick with coughs, colds, shingles, the flu and anything else contagious if they can get away with it. It seems like people want what they want when they want it and as fast as possible. My preference is to get out of their way and there have often been times that we have been ignored, or our rightful place in the queue has not been respected.
Slowly but surely I am learning through repetition to let inconsequential things go and imagine God saying to me lovingly “Deanne, Deanne, Deanne” somewhat similarly to the account in Luke 10:41 when Jesus spoke kindly to Lazarus and Mary’s sister with the words “Martha, Martha”. Another example which stays with me are the words “Marsha, Marsha, Marsha” (from The Brady Bunch TV show), when I feel stress due to injustice or poor behaviour from others. I need to keep in mind how blessed we are because we have the “big picture” of God’s soon coming Kingdom and we know we are God’s children. Even though the restrictions are uncomfortable this is just small stuff and we shouldn’t “sweat the small stuff”. We remind ourselves daily to focus on the big picture instead — this is what truly matters.
So we take it as it comes, obeying the current restrictions because we do care about the health of others as well as ourselves. Facial masks are optional here and we do not need to wear one unless we want to, are in crowds, or on packed public transport where we cannot social distance. We are strongly encouraged to wear a mask to the point that they are being handed out for free when entering shopping malls and when in some stores too. The government is supplying them and those who enter without wearing a mask are the prime targets. If I was catching public transport I would wear one but as I do not need to do this or attend large gatherings in sporting arenas for example, then I go without. I don’t like crowds anyway as claustrophobia threatens to set in so I manage to avoid any situations that would be considered a bigger risk for acquiring viruses or communicable diseases. We need to use common sense without fear, and acquire knowledge combined with the best help we can get — wisdom from God. The “new normal” now presents restrictions whether we like these or not and for the most part the greater community have jumped on board to do the right thing. There will always be a few rotten apples to spoil things for others but we determine that they will not be able to affect us because we listen to God and obey Him first and foremost, then all the laws of the land unless they conflict with our almighty Father’s directives.