Thoughts of a Pensioner
I am sitting on the porch steps (finally the weather is good enough that I could stick my nose outside) and thinking: What should I write about so that it is both nice, correct, and suits our situation? And suddenly I get an inspirational thought – I shall write about fear. But, before this – what does it mean to be fearless? It would seem that it simply means not to be afraid of anything. We know however, that there are very few people who are not afraid of anything; but, there are many (especially today) who, despite their fears, do their duty. When I listen to the nurses and doctors fighting each day for the lives of their patients, when I see them dressed like astronauts, I know they are afraid, but still, they work risking their lives, so maybe they are fearless? When I read about the heroism of the soldiers of the Warsaw Uprising fighting the overwhelming forces of the fascist occupiers, I admire their courage. When they started their uprising they were counting on help from the Allies, and so they had hope for a victory. The fighters of the Warsaw ghetto uprising were, in my humble opinion, more fearless, because they knew in advance they had no chance for a victory. Yet anyways, they rushed to the fight, because they wanted to provide an example for future generations that they would not go under the knife like a cattle…

I recall the saying from my youth: fear has big eyes. We used this saying often, to minimize the eventual danger, to man himself. Today this saying has a completely different meaning because we can see how easily people can panic. When the World Health Organization announced a pandemic at the beginning of March, I thought, oh well, we will have to live through that, but things have changed dramatically. When I went to the store for a “normal” shopping trip I saw people loading up their carts (some even two) with everything they could think of. Approaching the shelves where there were usually piles of toilet paper, I saw they were empty. I called my daughter to ask what’s going on, and she told me that yes, there is no toilet paper even in Costco, where there is always plenty of it. Why toilet paper, I asked myself, nobody can fight the virus with this. The wise men of psychology and sociology hurried with an explanation. It seems that stocking up on toilet paper is a relatively cheap action, and people like to think that they are doing something when they feel they are at risk. Hoarding also makes people feel secure, especially when the world is faced with a novel disease over which we have little or no control. It is also possible we are biologically programmed to hoard, the same as birds, squirrels and other animals who tend to hoard stuff for future bad times.

So how is it with fear? Certainly, the vast majority of us are born with inborn fear, because that is what Mother Nature gave us. Our instinct in the face of danger gives us “wings” (that is adrenaline) and orders us to run or to hide. Only years of exercise and training, and a “rational” brain allow us to better assess the situation and make decisions often contrary to our instincts (there are many examples of this). I wish all readers of the Forum this rationality and calmness in the face of the “unknown.” We need rationality today. We must listen to experts and epidemiologists, and take into account recommendations by the government in order to prevent the escalation of unnecessary fear.  At the same time, we must not downplay the situation in which we find ourselves living with COVID-19. I hope that soon we will be able to say: fear had big eyes…         

 

Joseph Hart