The Anaether

I’ll likely finalize the details on the uniforms later. I think I did this like half a year ago.

This blog post today is going to be terribly dark.

I really hope you and your loved ones are all self isolating and staying well. I’m grateful to all the essential workers who are still working, but I’m sad that they have to risk their lives doing so. I wish them all the best of luck.

I’m probably among the most fortunate in the world in this crisis. My job (so far) has not been impacted at all, and my normal day-to-day lifestyle pretty much already involved self isolation, and I enjoyed that. I still do. Inside my household, you might say it’s idyllic. It looks like I’m going to be fine through this crisis, however long it lasts.

With my own life, I don’t think I could be happier. I’m only sad and worried these days for other people. Perhaps my paradise may fall apart in the near future, I’m not sure if anyone can really say. But at the moment, I’m grieving through this harsh, brutal reality:

Many will die, and the bodies will have to start piling up around the world and in my own country before many actually start taking this seriously with the appropriate measures. The longer it takes for people to act, the longer it’ll take for this crisis to die down. We’re talking at least months, perhaps over a year. The vaccine won’t even be available until at earliest next year. I myself am one of those who was in complete denial a few weeks ago and thought this would pass in a month or two. I thought it’d just be another swine flu or Ebola outbreak, but it’s not. It’s so much more convenient to think “It’s not gonna happen to me.” So many people, including leaders of countries, cities, those responsible for millions of lives — are still in complete denial of how serious this world health crisis truly is. They unfortunately will not wake up to the reality until “enough” people die first and the hospitals are getting overwhelmed.

If you aren’t among those who are most vulnerable to this virus, and you’re not an essential worker, please don’t think that you can just continue to go around large groups of people. Stay home. You might still be infected and asymptomatic, and you may infect others, including those who are especially vulnerable. Young people are getting hospitalized as well, and no country has enough hospital capacity to accommodate all of those who will need intensive care… not unless the country builds new medical facilities quickly enough and/or swiftly contains the virus. At least for my country, with this corrupt administration, it’s going to be a long struggle. No one knows for certain how long the pandemic and the fallout from it is going to last.

I just can’t believe this president is still being allowed to lie and confuse the public during press conferences. Experts have to come in afterwards and correct him anyway. It’s unbelievable. People are literally dying from misinformation.

I’m sorry if you’re one of those who isn’t an “essential worker” but also can’t afford not to work. I’m sorry if you’ve been laid off and to anyone else who is finding themselves in financial hardship. I hope you can be taken care of somehow.

I’m also sorry I don’t have many words of comfort today. I’ve told a friend that I wish her father stopped working and stayed home. She and her entire family have chronic health problems, and her parents are old. I wish her father would choose the clear choice of minimizing the chances of dying from this virus.

If anything positive were to come out of this sad dark post, it’d be that it influenced perhaps a few people to act appropriately to help contain this virus.

In the meanwhile though, I’ll be carrying on with “The Anaether,” especially now that so many of us have more time on our hands at home on the internet trying to stave off boredom. I’m working on page 8 right now, and I’d like to release the pages all at once when I complete page 20. After that I’ll probably re-assess how frequently I publish. I think I’ll have completed the first 20 pages about a month from now.

I hope you all stay safe and healthy.