Creating Peace From the Pieces

I had an experience recently that exemplified the um, monsters (for lack of a better word) we as humans have so recently let ourselves become.
I was, as I often am, sitting in a doctor’s office waiting room. Several other patients were there, and as folks awaiting medical attention often do, we began to chat. Honestly, I’m not even sure how the topic arose, (probably someone voiced a frustration about face masks) but a gentleman began to say how he thought covid was fake. Hoping to shut him down, I mentioned that a couple of my friends passed away from covid. The man’s face immediately hardened and he responded: “That’s what they TOLD you it was”. I couldn’t even say anything, I was so mortified that another human could be that unfeeling. If I had said a friend died of cancer, he likely would’ve said he was sorry for my loss. I shouldn’t be shocked, though. Conversations like that one are normal, now. I think this pandemic, and the extreme steps that we’ve needed to take to combat it, have done something terrible to our our psyche. The global frustration at this elongated social seclusion has impacted us in such a way that we view one another as through the calloused separation of an online chat. We are failing to view others with empathy or even sympathy. There is little humanity to see in our interactions. We have an opinion, and we’re right. We only have one inane need – that to prove our point. We don’t care if we burn every bridge to do it. We are not sorry for your loss.