I must confess my own early error. Around March/April 2020, when the news from Europe was pretty awful and all we heard was Italian grandmas left alone for weeks with the rotting uncollected corpses of grandpa lying in the bedroom, a small volunteer advisory committee (not health-related) to our city govt. was discussing the pandemic and how we might want to act regarding in-person meetings and general social behavior. One of our members had actually served as part of the WHO delegation dealing with the SARS outbreak in China in 2003, and he was, I thought, a bit dismissive of the seriousness of what seemed to be happening now, and I said that sometimes you need to scare the shit out of people to get them to take things with the appropriate level of prudence.
I hang my head and invite all to hurl cat turds at me from your litterboxes for my evil authoritarian tendencies (expunged now though they may be). But my biggest concern then (and in general) has been not becoming a burden to my adult child as I continue down the ever-tarnishing road of my golden years. I've lived in a place where children die of diarrhea in an afternoon and the bazaars are full of carriers of every sort of nasty bug, and I never blinked an eye. when my kid and I went back there for awhile, I just made sure we had our Hep.B shots.
But in the immediate past, I surely didn't want him to have to deal with mom on a ventilator, or something, so I just stayed home, and he brought me provisions on a three-week schedule so he could ensure as much as possible he wasn't bringing me The Plague along with my cheddar cheese. And believe me, that anxiety about killing off the Parental Unit was pretty awful for him.
Still, I had no intention of getting THIS shot. Not enough data. I don't like doctors and aside from what I've believed to be necessary and appropriate vaccinations, I trust to my own instincts in treating my own ailments. And now to all of this current insanity I say fuck it. I wear the mask where legally required in my community but thank God I otherwise live in a red state and I bless them troglodyte conservative libertarian crotchety types this old Noo Yawkuh shamefully used to have contempt for. Live and learn, right?
F*ck me! Serious respect to you for writing this - let alone here - in full view of our claws and teeth! You are the kind of person I respect the most - ready to stand up for your ideas, but more than ready to change your course (and admit it) when you see you've screwed up. Cheers!
The story of my life is whatever I believe in at any particular time, I really believe in...and it's always been extremely painful when evidence starts biting my ankles and I can't ignore it, much as I might want to. That moment when you look down and see your bloody socks...
I'm a devoted reader of and frequent contributor to the letters section of our regional newspaper, whose circulation area represents both a rural area with all the natural hardships therein found, and college towns and their bedroom communities full of highly-educated extremely liberal people. It's been like a poli-sci lesson on how to build a genocide, the cliff notes version.
Out of curiosity, what is your son's viewpoint on this now? You say that he had awful anxiety about possibly killing you off by transmitting covid to you, has he accompanied you on your u-turn or did that anxiety stick with him?
He and all his friends got the vax (later mandated by his employer anyway). We discussed it very thoroughly, and we both felt that perhaps the J&J was least harmful and at least was only one dose. He was already regularly taking vitamin C (which is my absolute Holy Grail for everything) and vit. D, so I just prayed to all the powers of the cosmos that its anti-coagulant and anti-inflammatory properties would counterbalance the vax.
He has never tried to persuade me to take the vax. He felt he was protecting me by taking it and that it would allow him the social life he had almost entirely forsworn during the previous 2 years. During the warmer weather last year (it's brutal here in the winter) we began doing the provisioning together again (I don't drive; in pre-Plague years in good weather I'd take our limited local transport and my trusty backpack to do my own provisioning because I really wasn't ready to be the dependent ma.)
Melatonin, for you and your son. Cellular protectant. See Dr Mercolas recent article. I think you can find on his mercola.com or substack. Substack is for paid but I think you can read it, just not comment.
You betcha.
I must confess my own early error. Around March/April 2020, when the news from Europe was pretty awful and all we heard was Italian grandmas left alone for weeks with the rotting uncollected corpses of grandpa lying in the bedroom, a small volunteer advisory committee (not health-related) to our city govt. was discussing the pandemic and how we might want to act regarding in-person meetings and general social behavior. One of our members had actually served as part of the WHO delegation dealing with the SARS outbreak in China in 2003, and he was, I thought, a bit dismissive of the seriousness of what seemed to be happening now, and I said that sometimes you need to scare the shit out of people to get them to take things with the appropriate level of prudence.
I hang my head and invite all to hurl cat turds at me from your litterboxes for my evil authoritarian tendencies (expunged now though they may be). But my biggest concern then (and in general) has been not becoming a burden to my adult child as I continue down the ever-tarnishing road of my golden years. I've lived in a place where children die of diarrhea in an afternoon and the bazaars are full of carriers of every sort of nasty bug, and I never blinked an eye. when my kid and I went back there for awhile, I just made sure we had our Hep.B shots.
But in the immediate past, I surely didn't want him to have to deal with mom on a ventilator, or something, so I just stayed home, and he brought me provisions on a three-week schedule so he could ensure as much as possible he wasn't bringing me The Plague along with my cheddar cheese. And believe me, that anxiety about killing off the Parental Unit was pretty awful for him.
Still, I had no intention of getting THIS shot. Not enough data. I don't like doctors and aside from what I've believed to be necessary and appropriate vaccinations, I trust to my own instincts in treating my own ailments. And now to all of this current insanity I say fuck it. I wear the mask where legally required in my community but thank God I otherwise live in a red state and I bless them troglodyte conservative libertarian crotchety types this old Noo Yawkuh shamefully used to have contempt for. Live and learn, right?
F*ck me! Serious respect to you for writing this - let alone here - in full view of our claws and teeth! You are the kind of person I respect the most - ready to stand up for your ideas, but more than ready to change your course (and admit it) when you see you've screwed up. Cheers!
Thank you.
The story of my life is whatever I believe in at any particular time, I really believe in...and it's always been extremely painful when evidence starts biting my ankles and I can't ignore it, much as I might want to. That moment when you look down and see your bloody socks...
haha! we've all been there, it's what makes us humans! meeow!
See vorlic тАШs reply. Serious respect from me too.
I'm a devoted reader of and frequent contributor to the letters section of our regional newspaper, whose circulation area represents both a rural area with all the natural hardships therein found, and college towns and their bedroom communities full of highly-educated extremely liberal people. It's been like a poli-sci lesson on how to build a genocide, the cliff notes version.
That'll larn one fer shure.
I appreciate your regard.
Out of curiosity, what is your son's viewpoint on this now? You say that he had awful anxiety about possibly killing you off by transmitting covid to you, has he accompanied you on your u-turn or did that anxiety stick with him?
He and all his friends got the vax (later mandated by his employer anyway). We discussed it very thoroughly, and we both felt that perhaps the J&J was least harmful and at least was only one dose. He was already regularly taking vitamin C (which is my absolute Holy Grail for everything) and vit. D, so I just prayed to all the powers of the cosmos that its anti-coagulant and anti-inflammatory properties would counterbalance the vax.
He has never tried to persuade me to take the vax. He felt he was protecting me by taking it and that it would allow him the social life he had almost entirely forsworn during the previous 2 years. During the warmer weather last year (it's brutal here in the winter) we began doing the provisioning together again (I don't drive; in pre-Plague years in good weather I'd take our limited local transport and my trusty backpack to do my own provisioning because I really wasn't ready to be the dependent ma.)
Melatonin, for you and your son. Cellular protectant. See Dr Mercolas recent article. I think you can find on his mercola.com or substack. Substack is for paid but I think you can read it, just not comment.
Thank you.