We Are At Our Best Under Fire

I'm a movie nerd. Science fiction, aliens, action-packed and unexplained natural disasters are sure to make me unvoluntarily deposit a heavily-buttered bucket of popcorn in my co-movie-goer's lap. It doesn't matter if my heart skipped a beat or I lay awake in bed at night wondering if my house was the next stop for the undead. I love the story, no matter how insane or quirky. The rondeveau at the end of the dark alley in the middle of a gang warzone. I've seen so many versions of the same storyline but I still want to be startled when the alien jumps out from the most obvious and last place that curious Karen looks; (especially when you yelled at the screen enfatically for her not to do it!). Or when the glass vile with the most deadliest virus known to man still remains in the clutches of the hero unscaved even after he jumps off an exploding building, rolls down a thorned and brushy fifty-foot drop into and ice-cold serene winter lake just in time for the villian to snatch it from him.

So, on March 20, 2020 when the US government for the first time since creation legally made an entire country stand still and then stealthily influenced the whole globe to play a political and epidemic freeze tag, I was clear that the Covid-19 world event was just a re-make of the 2008 movie; "The Day The Earth Stood Still" staring Keanu Reeves which was really the re-make of the 1951 version of the 1940 science fiction short story, "Farewell to the Master" by Bernard Herrmann. Or maybe our economic plan-demic was the real-life enactment of the world events taken from the comic book series written by Robert Kirkman and pertrayed in the 2010 crittically aclaimed 11 season TV series "The Walking Dead".

"There is really nothing new under the sun. It merely mutates, wears a Niki Manaj wig and Gucci sunglasses." - The Write Chik

I read everything. Magazines, newspapers, breaking news on Twitter and the posters on the streetlight poles downtown. Although I know you won't admit it, I will bet my mouse to your million elephants that you do the same thing. (FYI Fact: According to popular TV show Mythbuster's findings, elephants may be indeed be afraid of mice.)

When shelter-in-place started, I didn't watch TV as much as I droned the internet trying to decipher fact from fiction. I read every post, listened to every conspiricy theory, every doomsday prediction which led me to microscope every survival YouTube video just in case the theories and predictions were as possible as the finding out that Tupac and Aliyah are alive and living on another planet or an undiscovered island.

I love to write. The Economic Plandemic; as real and serious as it was challenged my writing by stretching my beliefs. I pulled out the box of Post-it notes, pieces of napkins and the backside of junk-mail envelopes that were looming from the top of the dusty bookshelf. I had to admit that something so tragic and very present as a global shutdown was The Spark that pushed me to focus on story prompts that I feared to tackle but knew it had to be done. It gave me the opportunity to focus on and sharpen my writing skills, value my talent and love me more.

I love the human touch more than Grandmama's sweet potato pie. In less then 24-hours we were stripped of our support systems and had to navigate with spiritual bifocals, telescopes or just a "gut feeling" to survive and thrive. The official and goverment health experts convinced the American public that Covid-19 was more deadly than the Bubonic plague of 1347, the 1976 Ebola outbreak and the 1981 AIDS epidemic.

Remember I said I was a movie nerd? Well if the government officials had consulted Hollywood, its writers and Morgan Freeman from the 1995 film Outbreak we would have seen this coming and had all the answers to save the world. Dennis Haysbert, America's President in the 10-year run of the TV seriers 24 solved more problems in one episode and saved the world more times than the 2020 American President did in his four years. (oops!). Or better yet, I Am Legend (2007) or Bird Box (2018) would have guided us blindly and none the less with at least a dog for companionship.

The calamity that makes you REMEMBER GOD,

Is better than the blessings that makes you FORGET GOD.

(African Proverb)

My trust radar was blown to smithereens and bounced around like a cue ball on the global billards table. Social Media ran rampid like a toddler tantrum while the major alphabet networks mirrored social media and was as reliable and predictable as a drug addict in a candy store on Skid Row; we didn't know who to trust. The Reporters, Times and Journals all dried up leaving the 95% of us to be slaves to the 5% who were holding on to their insider information. On-line food access, on-demand entertainment and express delivery took on a whole new meaning of who gets the blunt of price gouging. And only in America was the toilet paper demand prioritized more than human rights and clean water.

I love a challenge. Before it was all over we won all the online prizes playing Poker. We lost all our friends playing Fortnite against them. We remodeled, redecorated and rehabilitated everything. We remixed every song, dance and recipe. We read every book in our bookcases. We planted our own food and we became experts at everything from here to Timbuktu.

I'm willing to wager that those who were at the forefront of these two years of madness, never imagined that so many of us would make it out better than when we entered. Whether the country or the culture, we all either succumbed and waited or survived and thrived. Some of us didn't make it. Some of us faired better than others. But most of us were reminded even converted to believe that there is something above all of us that got us through it.

Some of us were persuaded to be more compassionate. We began to move fearlessly and eradicated our self-imposed limitations and soon we soared in business, at home, in our community and abroad.

Even though some of us felt left behind, powerless and were treated unfairly we demanded our voices be heard and brought our own solutions rather than accept mandates from "they" who were never in the trenches, under the bridges or on the front line.

I believe the Plandemic was really never about a complex virus that stifled the entire globe. Yes it is real and cannot be taken lightly. History writes that the Diaspora and all of Afrika was resilient to its predecessors; the "War on Drugs, Oil, Diamonds and Gold", has proven that we are indestructible.

That Spark is aflamed now. As a people, a nation and a world it blazes so bright that I believe that those that are flickering would just stand close to the smallest spark and the strength of our numbers will set the dry and parched aflame. As a people, a nation and a world this Spark is a conduit for all of us in every way to make life better.

So we...

Do what you do best, better - then carry on. - The Write Chik

(NOTE: This is a blog that uses satire in an effort to bring laughter to its readers and is not intended to offend, harm, discredit or support any views, beliefs, positions or professions.)