Back in the Summer of 2010, my high school football team underwent a total coaching transition. Standing at a stout 5’8 and 3/4ths, I’ll never forget the first Saturday practice we had with our new quarterback coach.
Our first skills drill was practicing our three, five, and seven-step drops. After a few unworthy reps each, Coach Garret Gray stopped us and told us point-blank: “Imagine your worst fear is chasing you. Imagine it’s one step behind. Your worst fear is about to overtake you—drop back like your life depended on it.”
Seemingly dramatic, it got the point across. Though, the theme of the lesson is one that has stuck with me.
What is it that scares you the most? What is it that keeps you up at night, tossing and turning? What single thought makes your heart and thoughts race? You know, the thing that makes it feel like your heart is about to beat out of your chest, your limbs paralyzed, your breathing becomes burdened, your life over.
Something I’d like to bet, is not that thing—the coronavirus. Catching the actual disease, that is. Not how our government has responded to it. Communism now seems closer than ever, and that makes my blood run.
There are things in life that are worse than death. You know it. I know it. The government knows it—it is run by people, after all. Fear is the most powerful psychological persuasion technique; you can bet the government and its experts know that. The funny thing about fear, however, is it is a future reality in which we perceive things to be a certain way. Take, for instance, leaving the house without a mask or walking into the store without one—and catching the coronavirus. Or worse, spreading it to your older loved ones who may suffer?
When Coach Gray brought up that thought experiment, what came to my mind was living in poverty. At the time, my family lived paycheck-to-paycheck, when we had paychecks coming in. Today, my worst fears are different. Vastly different.
Death, however, is not one of them. To live your life fearful of death is to live no life at all. Every action has a consequence. But not every consequence leads to death. Nor does every action lead to bad consequences.
As Americans, we have been raised believing we are the masters of our own ship. The captains of our own fate. The sole determiner of our destiny. We believe these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal. That we are endowed by our creator with certain inalienable rights. That among these rights are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
Where is ‘life’ right now? What happened to our liberty? What kind of happiness can you pursue when the government shuts everything down in front of you for a virus with ‘danger’ and fatality numbers disgustingly exaggerated?
How fast, quick, and swift that rug was taken out from under us within weeks? 15 days to stop, what, again? The spread?
That was 300 days ago. 285 more days that requested.
These are some things to keep in mind as we discover, a “new” novel coronavirus has landed in New York. What a shock.
And to those asking me “what are you going to do about it?”
I do not wear a mask. I go where I want. I do not let the government dictate my life.
Maybe it is time more Americans started doing that as well. A Biden Presidency sure won’t like that.
