Am I the only one who is genuinely going to miss the quarantine? I thought about the possibility of the governor lifting it today and my immediate reaction was sadness accompanied by the thought, “No, not yet!” I don’t think I’m done with the quarantine. The beautiful lack of traffic, the working from home in my underwear for a week at a time, the guilt free delivery of junk food, the quiet of a largely empty office, the rediscovery of the bizarre and eclectic world of eBay… and the peace. My world reminds me of The Rolling Stones lyrics, “It was so very quiet and peaceful, there was nobody, not a soul around.” I am aware that it is hard on a lot of people, and that people are sick and dying, and that business are being devastated. I’m not oblivious. And I know it eventually has to end. But in my little patch of this Earth, right now, in this moment, it’s kind of wonderful. And I can’t be the only one who wishes we could somehow just let this quarantine ride out through the remainder of the year.
I also know it’s just a matter of time before something widespread and massively idiotic happens that makes me wish we had saved a lot fewer lives. I don’t expect anyone to agree with me – in fact, I expect to be straight up excoriated for saying this – but a part of me can’t shake the feeling that the coronavirus was our chance to thin the herd of a lot of undesirables. The very people protesting and breaking quarantine for political and religious reasons are people whom I largely feel we would be markedly better off without. I’m worried the quarantine may be woking a little too well. A lot of the real shitbags that need to die are simply not doing so as quickly as, nor in the numbers that, I was hoping. When we look back and wonder how many people died during the pandemic, I’m worried that my only honest answer will have to be, “Not enough.”