Commentary
Don't travel out of country / Airline travel is very safe with multi-layered pandemic precautions
Vaccines are available / Actually the nurse giving you the shot might not have got one yet.
Enjoy the great outdoors / Don't gather around that provided fire pit or stop to chat on the outdoor trail.
Don't go to the pool / Keep on skiing
Cancel all kids' hockey / Watch Junior hockey
Listen to the leadership / Don't always do as they do.
Hey Winnie ... what's that thing you say?
"Oh, bother."
Why Whinnie the Pooh? Well, the "Pooh"part is pretty self-explanatory. Much of what Albertans, Canadians and any resident of this giant spinning globe have had to wade through over the last 10 months has been pretty "Pooh-like" at times. Wear a mask, don't wear a mask, cancel travel, airplanes are safe, the virus loves the cold, the vaccine has to be frozen, follow the rules, not everyone has to abide by the rules, there are no rules?
It also seems like we're going for a never-ending walk through the Hundred Acre Wood — and with all the conspiracy and second-guessing, expert-opinion and dispute of fact, it's hard to tell if we mapped the route ourselves or if we're being lead down the path.
How did we navigate the last year with all the conflicting information ... and conflicts in general? Back to Winnie ... and his jars of honey. "Keep 'em sweet" has been the idea of our governments. Money handouts, infrastructure, comforting words despite contrary actions ... Don't worry about the swarming bees, we're getting you the honey.
CERB honey, EI honey, CRCB honey, CEWS honey, CEBA honey ...
The money and assistance offers have been great — but how do we pay it back? How long will that take? Who's going to pay? That's on our minds, but many people are too involved in the conflict to look further down the road. Sure, the money has has been great, it has kept many places afloat — but the payback has to happen, it's inevitable.
"A river knows this: There is no hurry. We shall get there some day."
Now we have the vaccines. Unless you are mired in the conspiracy over the needles, the payback is going to be health. Good for us, good for government. The vaccines are the big shiny reward at the end of this ordeal.
"Nobody can be uncheered with a balloon."
Keeping us healthy is imperative if the government is going to have a tax base to pay back the billions spent so far.
Like a stroll through the Hundred Acre Wood for a yellow bear walking on two legs, the trek through this pandemic has been a wobbly and uneven one. With so many contrasting instructions, and conflicting stories ready to trip us up, it's no wonder there's conspiracy theories, clashes and distrust taking us all away from the issue.
“Always watch where you are going. Otherwise, you may step on a piece of the Forest that was left out by mistake.”
If more of our leadership would simply say, "We don't know..." instead of walking us down paths and trails dotted with honey jars to keep us happy, a least we'd have honest answers.
"I'm not lost for I know where I am. But however, where I am may be lost."
The biggest conflict we have faced through this pandemic is the demands on our leaders to offer immediate answers — at the risk of being wrong — on an issue that has no precedence, because of our need as humans to demand those questions for things we want to understand right now.
The bear of very little brain gets it: “What’s wrong with knowing what you know now and not knowing what you don’t know until later?”
