Variant of Violation

It’s simply frustrating. Just when we thought that things would go along happily ever after, then came news here and there of disappointment. It would have been nice if things went on as promising as we expected it to be. Then, all of a sudden, that walk in the park is all over. No, I’m not talking about the Mel Sarmiento and Kris Aquino break-up.

It’s like a hangover after a big party. It had been a jumping party of days of friends, family, food, all flourishing frenzy that we could only wish, would not end. But then, after the fireworks, and you realize that you have to go back to work, then, a shovel whops your occipital lobe oh so violently and causes your perceptions to spark to reality. Now, Covid-19 cases are back to their usual direction of shooting up. It’s back to normal. By normal, I mean being in unease in the dangerous numbers of the spreading pandemic. Well, that’s what has seemed to be what’s normal for the past two year. Times of low numbers and loose restrictions seem to be rare that it would be difficult to consider them “normal” anymore.

At least, we all could thank the Lord for somehow granting us a holiday from the streak of stress and struggle of this polemic of a pandemic. It was like a temporary freedom for an inmate. Yes, freedom had been fun; but you have to get back inside the slammer after the party. In any case, that brief period is something we could cherish in memory.

Diving and dashing through the two year mark, we still have not learned the lesson of taking the virus seriously. I suppose staying through quarantine would be downright boring. (I imagine, I’d be fine as long as I got a laptop and strong wifi.) I guess in suffocating and strangling situations, the desperate person would resort to bribery in order to skip quarantine to attend to the essential, highly necessary and indispensable passion of going to a party. It’s simply unimaginable how some people could resort to irregularities and ignore health risks for something as existentially vital as revelry. There must have been some change in the millennial version of the hierarchy of needs. Interestingly, a party is the ultimate exercise of socialization which is a 180 º opposite of isolation. Another person reportedly skipped quarantine to engage in the highest degree of importance of having a massage, physical contact which will certainly violate the principles of social distance, which actually is the objective of the quarantine. It’s bad enough that they make mockery of rules. But what makes the action downright deplorable is that this reckless action has undeniably caused the infection of people whom the person in question has come in contact with. The violation of the rule just proved that the rule should not be violated.

This interesting interpretation of a sense of responsibility, social concern and health and wellness has caused outrage among the public. (Look at it this way. These people have such a great concern for fellowmen that the urge to socialize in merrymaking is simply irresistible, and personal well-being, health and wellness are held in high regard that massage therapy could not simply be ignored.) I hear that people are so incensed that they want to hold these quarantine skippers accountable.

I remember a certain senator some months ago, who went around a hospital and even went shopping when he was aware that he was Covid positive. His defense was the overwhelming joy of his wife giving birth to their child. How sweet. I guess one could not question the heights, depths, lengths and breadths that a father would venture for his child. But couldn’t he wait until his quarantine period is over? I guess he couldn’t contain the excitement. People were outraged then. Some celebrities even condemned voting for the senator. I think a case was filed against him. Now, he’s serving time in freedom. Nothing happened.

So, let’s see what happens to these skippers. There is high probability that they are just a few representatives of a large community of quarantine violators who are becoming a virus in their own right.

There’s another variant of this virus. An anti-vaxer (who is of course, unvaccinated) wants to go to the mall who checks for vaccination ID’s before letting shoppers in. What does she do? She saves a picture of her sister-in-law’s authentic vaccination card and shows it to the guard. Just like that, they run all around.

“A scoffer does not like to be reproved; he will not go to the wise.” -Proverbs 15:12