It was your post more than you,you know I like you,aside from the shouting !
I have had covid,positive test and had two lots of emergency treatment,still get breathless from early march that has coloured my view on the situation so I have empathy for everyone who has been touched with it
I really hope your son is ok?
My son is doing fine, thank you, as I’m sure his youth and lack of co-morbidities has been quite helpful. As you know, my job puts me into the public in an aluminum tube with hundreds of people daily, while having to have temperature checks, disinfect my own cockpit every leg, and wear a mask at work while sitting a few feet from a stranger about whose medical history I have zero idea.
My post was about what has become a cottage industry of faux outrage and faux outpouring of empathy. I’m the guy who cries at family movies, so I’m not a hard or harsh person. However, I’m also not one to look outside my own family for reasons to mourn. Pep lost his Mum. I wouldn’t wish that in anyone. However, the extrapolations from a 2 minute “interview” where Pep basically did a COVID Public Service Announcement were extraordinary...he is sad, he shouldn’t have to be at work, poor guy is still in mourning for him Mum. It’s all hyperbolic nonsense, and we have no way to know how Pep feels. Heck, when he doesn’t have a mask on it is hard enough to know what’s on his mind, let alone mask on discussing how we should adhere to the rules.
Work is work. No-one really wants to do it, but our society is built around work = pay = food and drink and shelter and Maslow is happy. So, that society gives no-one a free pass, because no-one gets all those things for free, but if there was such a thing as a free pass, someone with Pep’s resources and employment credentials would be the person to get one. If Pep said he was uncomfortable being at The Academy, then I know no-one at City who would dare tell him “get to work,” do you?
Karen, to be fair, I am speaking to a more societal issue, and addressing some of it with this entire issue. Society seems to be devolving. People are meaner to each other, take advantage of each other at the slightest opportunity, and, in some instances, take great pleasure in doing it. Then, as if by magic, we come up with reasons to, for the most part, pretend we are distraught by someone else’s misery. It’s all politically correct BS.
I have no desire to take this any further, so I will simply say that I am sick and tired of society looking the other way while millions struggle, starve, and be taken advantage of for the benefit of others, then, often in an attempt to find some humanity in themselves, they pour out faux emotions on the slightest “Awww” moment. This will not sound good, especially because I live in the States (which is the world’s worst glasshouse from which to cast any aspersions towards ANY other society in earth), but with every visit to Britain, I become more and more distraught at the fact that Britons are being squeezed to death while being fed a diet of American fast food and reality TV to numb them to what is being done to them. I see so little quality of life amongst the vast majority of the populous, with so many people simply enduring a week of work, so they can go out, spend their money at the weekend and get pissed once or twice a week, along with a few kebabs or a curry.
I have empathy for Pep and what he has gone through, but I have FAR MORE empathy for the hundreds of thousands of nameless, faceless hard working people who fall every day, especially during this period. I don’t know Pep, or his Mother, but I’m sure they are people who have given more to society than they take. I’m sure they are good people. However, there are literally BILLIONS of good people on earth who get no empathy from anyone for anything, nor do they expect it. Rather, they get on with their lives, because for about 6.9 of the 7.0 billion people on earth life is hard. In some cases, far harder than either of us will ever know.
So, I give my time on empathy and money to help people who need help and almost never get it. I prefer to spend my time worrying about those for whom no-one appears to be worrying. I prefer to use all my empathetic energy seeking a more just, level society, where hard work is not only appreciated, it is rewarded, and everyone who does a hard day’s work receives the rewards needed to have a decent life. I don’t use it on those who have won the life lottery and work because it creates generational wealth that will raise them above the vagaries of life that most of have to deal with in a daily basis.
I’m sure you’re a good person...one of many rightly lauding the efforts of those on the front lines of this pandemic...and I’m sure Pep is, too, as he does the same thing. That said, I simply can’t share the oh so personal feelings that some have towards Pep for reality reaching out and pricking his beautiful life balloon and for the horror of having to endure the downside of regular life at times. Millions of people suffer through such things, and much worse, every day. I shed a tear for them.
Be well. Peace.
