It started with toilet paper…
…IT STARTED WITH TOILET PAPER? Yeah, toilet paper. Then it continued with hoarded food, diapers, canned goods, tea, paper towels, tissues, and other household cleaning products. Store shelves were becoming bare and Amazon was working overtime.
People feeling claustrophobic and trapped in their own homes were forgetting that they had everything they needed on a material basis. They were set for life, but life didn’t feel quite right. It didn’t matter that they had beautiful homes and family to hunker down with. They were concerned about the outer world and “how is the outer world going to effect me?” Granted, this was not everyone’s thinking, but perhaps some people thought these things.
After all, it started with toilet paper. Jokes and memes were being tossed out on social media with warp-speed as the situation grew in seriousness.
The world was changed and altered. This leaves a bitter taste in a lot of people. This was a devastating time. This was a strange, frustrating, sad, heartbreaking, uncomfortable, and incomprehensible time.
It forced us to retreat inward. For some of us this was a new experience and very difficult to face ourselves without any kind of distraction, or at least less distraction. For other’s they were used to retreating inward, but it forced a different kind of inward retreat that felt twice as painful, and hard to get out of. So the world was hurting and faced to look at their past, present, and future in one glorious blow. Personal, unresolved issues were colliding with the present time and making us rethink our future.
Fear was pleased with itself. He sat in his layer overlooking all that happened from the start of this life-altering situation until now. He observed his handiwork and how it has turned out thus far. Fear’s demon minions threw a party for their master. The minions were been proud to serve and Fear felt gleeful in this party thrown for him.
Fear gave a speech to his minions, feeling proud that everyone that has struggled so far in this creation of negativity had to face their inner demons more intensely than they ever had to before. Fear stands on its soapbox and says, “I am wholly dishonest, and no man knoweth it. I can cheat, lie, commit adultery, rob, murder, and I elude detection by smooth-tongued villainy. Animal in propensity, deceitful in sentiment, fraudulent in purpose, I mean to make my short span of life one gala day. What a nice thing is sin! How sin succeeds, where the good purpose waits! The world is my kingdom. I am enthroned in the gorgeousness of matter.”
The minions cheer for their master. The demons hoot and holler in prideful excitement. They all feel like they’ve accomplished something wonderful. The tone of the party shifts when Fear and his demon minions turn on the news to view the continued destruction of the world. They watch in disbelief as stories of love, patience, new skills, and the overall resilience of humankind flashes over their TV screen.
Fear steps off its soapbox. The demon minions look to their master for comfort and a solution to this growing outbreak of goodness. Though Fear is surrounded by a crowd of admirers Fear feels lonely, and suddenly untalented, and without innate purpose.
Fear speaks, this time with less enthusiasm, “But a touch, an accident, the law of God, may at any moment annihilate my peace, for all my fancied joys are fatal. Like bursting lava, I expand but to my own despair, and shine with the resplendency of consuming fire.”
Sighing heavily Fear gives one last look at the TV as it continues to plaster news of good and stories of humankind working to heal. His head hung low Fear leaves the party and his demon minions look on in astonishment. Their master has been exposed.
Though humans can be superficial, arrogant, and selfish at times, dark times can either make or break them. Often it is the positive. We grow from the dark. We grow from hard times and strange occurrences. We may loath every second of that growth, or we may not see the good that is coming from the dark, but light always shines. Perhaps, faintly at first, but nonetheless it shines. We may hate to face ourselves, but this is a darkness far more intense and worldly than we are used to. So it is required that we face ourselves. If we don’t, then we have let the dark break us. However, humans are funny…
…We think we will be broken, and some think they were born inherently broken, but leave it to a tough situation to make us realize we are far from broke. We often forget the important little things in life, like gratitude for what is already in front of us, but we are not easily broken. Fear does not get to define us. Fear cannot make or break us, unless we have chosen to be broken and do nothing but wallow in self-pity. However, humans are innately brilliant, resilient, and good. They have a knack for making the most of a hard situation or one that is uncomfortable. They do this through humor, creativity, love, and their inherent gut reaction to respond to life.
So it started with toilet paper…but it’s ending with a renewed sense of strength, courage, and humility.