TENSE? STRESSED? HERE’S HOPE AMID DARK DAYS AHEAD
Mark Clairmont | MuskokaTODAY.com
Sunday observances ….
Hope springs eternal on Palm Sunday — as nature trumps nurture.
April showers are already bringing May flowers, with yellow daffodils and purple crocuses cropping up giving hope in a dark world.
And robins have even been spotted.
There’s no masking what’s going on, as nations and neighbours that should be united are at deadly odds driven by a pandemic devolving into pandemonium.
People are steering clear of each other and colourful homemade masks — being fashioned by anyone who still has a sewing machine — will appear on streets this week.
In Gravenhurst a group of Rotarians is taking up that cloth challenge, which will act to assuage public fears of coming in contact (while out shopping) with hidden COVID-19 carriers.
The mask fight took over the testing fright this week, even as two assessment centres opened in Muskoka Wednesday and look to remain in place for months as everyone could end up being tested there or at home.
In this world war on the coronavirus, it’s no surprise political tensions are as raw as on the front line where a local health-care worker in Bracebridge this week described the mood of staff inside South Muskoka Memorial Hospital as “tense.”
A closed-up business owner in Gravenhurst says the community is “stressed.”
Uncertain times have created risky divisions that in the 49th parallel pan political Petri dish have allowed long-seething disagreements to cultivate chaos threatening Canada and the U.S.
Donald Trump is fomenting state strife among bon amis with his undignified 3M protectionism.
Justin Trudeau and Doug Ford are showing him up on the leadership front.
They, too, are fighting hard for Canadians and Ontarians. The premier says his government will leave no stone unturned in finding facilities that can make what is needed.
But is this a setback for the globalism Trump ran against and most of the rest of the world sees as a unifying force for good.
Putting all your Easter eggs in one basket defies the reality that the emerging economic diversification of new at-home workplaces is creating.
Trudeau diplomatically said today he doesn’t want to “harm our neighbours,” so don’t expect him to keep Windsor nurses from crossing the Gordie Howe bridge to help pandemic patients in Detroit hospitals.
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Stay at home took on new emergence this week when Ford urged cottagers not to self-isolate in Muskoka.
Residents here are already reporting a spike in seasonal users — if not tourists — a pressure mayors in Bracebridge and Huntsville and across Central Ontario have alerted him to increased hospital “emergencies” and grocery shortages.
It shouldn’t be a problem, but with premature competition for products and services province-wide at a premium, softening this curve is crucial, too.
Food scarcity in that supply and demand can be seen online as many sales items are being ordered in bulk leaving little choice than to pay top dollar for over-priced name goods.
That limits selection and not in a good way stores should do with some products — like toilet paper.
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Elsewhere, why aren’t all billboard signs being used to message the greater good?
Private as well as public. Advertising events that may not happen seems in bad taste, in this corner.
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The elephant in the room … later.
In social distancing ideally it’s best to stay apart — definitely if you have symptoms.
If you are asymptomatic — show no signs — steer clear if you can.
So, what does that mean for families?
Should you share an umbrella?
Tell the kids to feed themselves?
At home, you can go to your corners and take turns in common areas.
Those long dinner tables in old movies make sense. Or lift up the leaf in your dining room set if you have one.
Anybody still have TV tables?
And, finally, are separate beds and bedrooms returning?
Sleep on that.
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Talk about strange bedfellows, how about Ford and Chrystia Freeland?
And Freeland and Ashton Kushner?
It is indeed a strange new world order.
And if dire death predictions for this week are to be believed — this is going to be one hell of a Holy Week leading up to Easter Monday.
Luan Bersha says he’s concerned about COVID-19, so he is wearing an N95 mask on the worksite in Bracebridge.
Robin’s return Mother Nature’s gift to troubled world.
Email Mark Clairmont at mark@muskokatoday.com
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