Toilet Paper Blues

Supplies are flying off the shelves in the grocery stores.  People are stocking up on all the essentials they will need to survive a 14 day quarantine.  What are the essentials?  Apparently toilet paper is way up on the list.  Toilet paper is more rare than a bar of soap used to do basic hand washing.  But that's okay.  As long as I can wipe my behind, I don't really need to wash my hands, do I?

In some ways, hoarding has become more important than social distancing.  The consumer will fight long lines in a store to get that extra roll of toilet paper; sometimes standing shoulder to shoulder to get the desired item and then come home and tell themselves they are self quarantining.  "I just went out for a few items I needed then I can home and washed my hands real good."  I think we are confused as to what is essential and what is not.  If I have 20 rolls of toilet paper and live alone, toilet paper is not essential.

What we need to find essential is social distancing.  We need to maintain our distance from other people.  I understand that this may be hard because we are social people; but we have to start containing this illness and it has to start with us.  On a telephone call someone said, "I don't have to worry because I don't get sick. I'm going about my life as I usually do."  Well, how nice for you, but to how many other people are you carrying the illness?  How many other people will suffer because you don't get sick?

There is a definite spectrum when it comes to COVID-19.  On one end of the spectrum there are those people who believe that this illness is Armageddon and we are living in the end times.  On the other end of the spectrum are those who believe that this is nothing more than a hoax.  Both ends of the spectrum can be dangerous.  Armageddon hoards toilet paper, the hoax doesn't social distance.  Both are a threat to our way of life.

I understand that our way of life has changed since the COVID-19 virus has infected our nation; it really couldn't have done otherwise.  The threat is real.  The fear we feel is natural and a direct result of us being a "thinking" animal.  It's that "thinking" that's going to make us survive this pandemic outbreak.

Here is my question.  If you have 20 rolls of toilet paper and your neighbor needed a roll, would you give it to him?  Would you share your stockpile of hoarded items with others who had none?  If your answer is yes, why hoard?  If your answer is no, well then...........