That Feeling You Have

…wasn’t it just the other day, that feeling that it was going to be just another March, thinking about spring and gardening, and then a week later, it’s the strangest March of your life, and whatever the yet-to-come is, it’s yet to come.

…early on, it’s that here-we-go-again feeling that people my age and up feel. This time its political correctness meets flu season, yet another overreaction. 

…it’s that feeling when you’re watching the news, and you don’t trust it like you used to, because you see the conflict of interest, that fear is good business, for their business.

…it’s that why-do-I-keep-watching-this feeling, the irony so clear – that if it weren’t for watching the news, you’d feel great!

…but you feel so who-am-I about this. You know a little about a lot, but next to nothing about viruses. So you just shut up, and watch it all play out…  

That Feeling You Have Early On

…when you feel like something doesn’t add up. Is this a form of mass crazy? You may not be the sharpest knife in the drawer, but at least you’re not acting like a fork. If you grew up watching old Westerns, the lesson was in the cattle stampede. It’s not the crazy herd, it’s the crazy few cows that begin it all, and shame on the cowboy, that fired his gun.

…you have that feeling that you’re right, or sorta right, or mostly right, or more right than wrong, but still you keep quiet because you get that second-guessing-yourself feeling, maybe it’s you, that doesn’t see what’s obvious to everybody else…

…there’s that here-it-comes-again feeling, counting the number of times they’ll say “Wash your hands” before the next commercial.

…that feeling when you realize you’re a participant in something historical. It’s never happened in your lifetime, and you wonder, will future generations be impressed, or point to this moment as something that clearly shows the decline, from The Greatest Generation to we lesser generations.

…that feeling you had, when, of all things, it started to be about toilet paper…

That Feeling You Have A Few Days Later

…that feeling you have when you’re not sure when the next shoe will drop.

…that feeling of being a sheep.  Nothing personal against wool; you’re just not a person meant to be in a herd.

…that feeling, when you appreciate how historically rare great leadership really is. Washington. Lincoln. FDR/Eisenhower/Churchill.  You sure wouldn’t want the job yourself.  You feel for leaders, imagine trying to make sense to people whose first reaction was to stockpile toilet paper.

…that feeling-small feeling. Just the other day, you were a grown adult, mature and self-reliant, and now some talking head on TV, decades younger than you, is telling you to hum the Happy Birthday song as you wash your hands, like you’re a preschooler.

That Feeling As The Momentum Grows

…that feeling of waiting for yet another shoe to drop.

…that feeling, about the power of nature. It’d be one thing if “it” was T-Rex, or killer bees, or even fire ants, but a virus? It’s humbling, and confusing, for the enemy to be so invisible, especially if you’re older, and remember living with the in-plain-sight hostility with Russia, and the threat of nuclear war.

…that feeling of We. Everything you feel, you know with certainty, that millions and millions – maybe even billions – feel the same.  It’s odd, everybody more apart, yet everybody more together…

…that feeling of life interrupted.  It’s an odd feeling, to feel leashed and kenneled.  

…that odd feeling of being healthy – maybe not know a single sick person – when the whole world is worried about being sick.

…that feeling of selfishness, the how-it-inconveniences-you moment, it comes from within, and like acid reflux, it leaves a bad taste. Only thing good about it is that you didn’t say it out loud.

…that feeling of gentleness, when you think about people who have more on their plate, and less in their cupboard. You imagine a stranger, fragile, lonely, maybe someone with less mind to think through the moment, and even if you’re not the praying type, you sorta do one, by what you’re feeling, wishing for Someone bigger to look out for them…

…that feeling of embarrassment, imagining how shallow we Americans must appear, with our shopping carts full of toilet paper and bottled water, to people who must daily bake their own bread, and hand pump their own water…

That Feeling Of Hoping You Measure Up

…that feeling you have, when you know exactly who you’d call, in uncertain times like this. All too often, they’re not here anymore.  So you imagine them, in “their” chair, that look on their face, and wonder how’d they handle it.

…that feeling you have, when children look to you, in times like this. You put on your be-alright face, play your role, say your words, even though deep inside, there’s still a little left of the child you once were.

…people go to what they know; for we Louisiana people this feels like waiting for a hurricane. Where’s the eye? Where will it make landfall? We respect hurricanes, but we don’t fear them. They lose power as soon as they hit land. Maybe viruses are microscopic hurricanes…

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This edition of Uncle P’s Bedtime Stories is dedicated to the proposition that This Too Shall Pass.  In many ways, this feels like waiting for a hurricane.  We Louisiana people know that drill.

Uncle P can be reached at eightyoneantiques@gmail.com.