911±¬ÁϳԹÏ

(Photo Illustration - MetroCreativeConnection - Editor's Notes by Christina Myer)

I know I’m not alone in driving past gas stations last week and panicking a little at the nearly $5/gallon prices; or worrying about news that other prices are increasing, energy costs are rising, etc. There’s the faint whiff of panic in the air, everywhere.

I was talking with a friend about the general unease, and he said “Honestly, it feels like when we were going into (COVID lockdown).”

He didn’t mean he believes there is an impending lockdown, but the uncertainty and worry combined with a new financial pinch are similar.

Of course, when I recounted THAT story to another friend and said “But there’s no pandemic this time,” she jokingly said “Have you heard about the hantavirus cruise ship?”

All that had me trying to remember what my nervous system was like in about 2019; and thinking about what it has done to us as a culture to feel this level of anxiety in waves for so many years.

I understand how old I sound when I say this, but in my opinion, social media has had a great deal to do with that feeling. Some people have given up being just keyboard warriors and are now reveling in interacting with one another face-to-face as they would online.

Granted, some people are speaking to and about other human beings that way because they believe it will score them political points. (And the truly pathetic thing is, it does.)

Others have gotten so addicted to whatever satisfaction they get from mocking or tearing down another person that they hurl themselves from outrage to outrage just so they can keep doing it.

Solve one problem and they will be on the lookout for the next excuse to speak scathingly to what they’ve decided is the other side.

(And here is where I confess that I just spent about ten minutes trying to find what I was convinced was a quote from Abraham Lincoln, only to eventually realize I was remembering part of one of Adam Kelly’s columns, in which he talks about those who died “convinced that theirs was the only right.” You’ll get to read that one again in a few weeks.)

And much as I believe there are plenty of people who DO believe they are in the right, I get the feeling there are plenty of others who don’t care so much about right and wrong. They’re just enjoying the theater of it all. It doesn’t matter to them that their trolling is being used as a weapon. They like it, anyway.

Guess how much that is doing to move us forward as a society and as a country.

From what I can see, all it’s doing is causing us to be constantly on guard against the next crisis, trying to defend ourselves from the chaos — and keeping us from seeing that a lot more of us are “OK” than we feel like we are, because the anxiety and worry are contagious.

If you’re not OK, talk to someone about it. You will likely find you are not alone.

If prices and other changes in the economy are affecting you in a way that has you considering looking into support resources, again, you are not alone.

Don’t let the worst among us convince you that all humans should put you on the defensive. Despite an obnoxiously loud few, the truth is we are all in this together, and we can fight back against that hint of panic in the air. We’ll just have to do it together.

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By the way, given the worry in the air, now is an excellent time to check in with your mom, or the mother-figures in your life. Happy Mother’s Day, everyone!

Christina Myer is executive editor of The Parkersburg 911±¬ÁÏ³Ô¹Ï and 911±¬ÁϳԹÏ. She can be reached via e-mail at cmyer@newsandsentinel.com.