X Marks the Spot

You know how social engineering happens? Often it's slow, almost benign suggestions that make you second guess your life choices.

It's a headline that reads "Joanna Gaines Says Never Make These Design Mistakes".

Or a click bait that lets us all know which baby names are no longer cool. (Oh my. I ruined a couple of my kids with their names!) Conversely they let you know which ones are now in vogue instead. (Sorry, but some of those names, in my opinion, are just terrible...)

New words are coined ("social distancing" anyone?) and now we find ourselves awkwardly trying to figure out our relationships.

If you are personally fine with other people redefining life as you know it, there are plenty of people ready and willing to tell you what color to paint your house, what to name your next kid, what shoes will ensure lasting friendships, and what you will now be calling things. (....And where to sit, where to stand, where to be, what to say, what to do….)

I am discovering things about myself in these recent times.  I am not good at following directions.  I have come to consider so many things to be loose approximations instead of hard and fast laws.  Take, for instance, floor tape.  I had been thinking of the placement of these “social distancing” tapes as suggestions for how customers might budget the space between themselves and the other customers.  I was wrong.  At least gauging by the scolding I received for NOT STANDING BEHIND THE X at one store.  Alrighty, half a step back remedied that situation.  But apparently I ticked the cashier off  and the rest of our transaction leaves the decision to ever go there again in limbo.  Come on, yell at me for not resigning myself to stand on the X, but I am not unaware that I had to be closer than 6ft social distance to place my items on the counter and to give payment.  Plus, not that I care but to bring some fairness to this, the customers ahead of me completely brushed inside my 6ft social bubble to leave the cashier to head for the exit.

We are in a rapid societal evolution right now.  They have told people to wear masks.  The verdict on that is still out.  Just weeks ago we were all cautioned against it and told explicitly not to.  Now you have people filming you as one of *those* who did not come to town donning one.  I lean “to each his own”, but really?  I have seen the way people manage their mask wearing.  If you envision them making the same adjustments to their bare face, it would seem insane.

I live on a farm.  I have people arrive to pick up food on a regular basis.  Hey, wear a mask or don’t wear a mask, I don’t care, but I have to wonder if breathing in fresh country air does a body more good than breathing in your own recycled carbon dioxide.

Superbugs are growing more resistant to hand sanitizer. Oh wait. That was so last year. Now we can't keep it on the shelf.  People are so conditioned to apply hand sanitizer that they are ignoring their own chemical burns and our previous knowledge that it wasn't biologically sustainable to keep using it on a regular basis.

 I am not endorsing compliance or revolt, but I sure think we would all do well to at least know what and why in world we are doing things.  

 If you would still like an opinion and your own unique voice, be aware of how willing you are to embrace all the latest anything.
~Colleen