SELF-ISOLATION, DAY 5

OK, I wasn’t going to complain, but… buying way more than you need, this is what is called

HOARDING.

I am cheating a little. This is the essay for tomorrow, March 21 but I came home from work and need to vent a little. So, please don’t tell anyone I am doing this.

Really, since humans are doing this and it happens frequently I am trying to understand this panic-hoarding people do. I suppose it is in some way understandable. It occurs when a previously unsuspected problem occurs, threatening a large portion of some particular area of the population. In this case, everyone is potentially affected.

But…listen to me, please (and I know probably very few people read my crap), there is enough food to go around. Food production has not stopped. Toilet paper production, I read in an online article, was being increased before the COVID-19 started to affect us, since manufacturers thought this might happen. I explained to a couple of stressed customers that there is enough of everything, that there is still a shortage of paper products because in the morning people come in and grab whatever came in during the night. One customer had a shopping cart overflowing and the bill was nearly $600! Judging by the amounts of various products she purchased, either she will be feeding an infantry company this weekend, or she is stockpiling for 3 months.

Some are bewildered. A gray-haired man, with an accent from maybe Eastern Europe, was trying to purchase the gallon jugs of water. He told me in broken English that his sister told him that the governor of this state said everything will close. He asked me 3 times if our store will stay open. And about gas stations. So, I explained as thoroughly as I could what the situation is and that we will stay open and that there is enough of everything. If everyone could somehow calm down and be willing to share, to let loose of the “death grip” on having more than enough so one does not have fear.

I looked in their faces and saw black, brown, tan, white; faces that smiled, were angry, were tired, were bewildered, were hopeful. I saw my ancestors in their faces. I saw America. Why can we not see this in each other and share the last loaf of bread?

Let us try all to do this together, to stay safe, be well, share.

March 21, 2020