Stay at Home, you Gowl
If you went to the pub last night, you’re a gowl. If you go to the pub from here on in, you’re a gowl. If you went to the pub on Friday or Thursday, you’re a gowl. I went to the pub on Friday night for a few pints. I left early on. I was a gowl for going. It was haphazard and more than reckless. I’m not implying I’m better than anyone. But a lot of us are being selfish and reckless and irresponsible. If you continue to live your life as if nothing is really going on then you’re a gowl.
Stop going to the pub. Stop going to the gym. Stop going to meet friends for coffee. Stop calling to friends for chats. Stay at home. Read. Hone a skill. Fill your time with productive endeavours. If you can’t must the self-discipline to be alone right now, then we’re fucked. It’s as simple as that. Ring your friends. Stay connected but stay in your house. You risk contracting this thing every time you put yourself in the position to interact with people in person.
The odds are that if you’re reading this, you’ll probably do just fine if you get Covid-19. But you’re not who’s important here. It’s the people you can infect that are important. You putting yourself in the position to get infected increases the risk of a vulnerable person you know getting it, and that might turn out to be fatal.
If you lack the self-control to stay in your house for as much time as possible then you are undoubtedly selfish. Your desire to go for pints, or coffee, or to the gym does not take priority over the lives of other people. Every time you go out into the public for here on in may spread this virus. What this implies is that you think your trip to the gym or the pub is more important than the life of someone else. Call that dramatic if you wish, but it is undeniably true, too.
The last few days have been telling of people. There are now people who are willing to sacrifice luxuries such as trips to the pub, and those who aren’t. If having the same Saturday night out in the same pubs as you have every other week is more important to you than compromising the health of those around you, then you need to take a good look at yourself in the mirror. The selfish, narcissistic, reckless and outright disappointing nature of our generation has never been more obvious.
I hope to fuck none of you get this virus. I hope none of your more vulnerable family and friends get it. I really hope nobody gets it that it could be fatal for. However, if you continue to go about your life business as usual, you’re helping to increase the risk of this happening. You’ll be the most upset if you, God forbid, lose someone to this. And you don’t want to be in that situation knowing that you could have done more to prevent that from happening. You don’t want to have to live the rest of your life, knowing that you were explicitly told to stay in for a short-period of two weeks, but you decided that the trip to the pub, or the gym, or to Starbucks was so essential that it couldn’t be skipped. I’m not sure if I could live with myself knowing that.
Stay safe, wash your hands and stay the fuck inside.
