Pandemic restrictions are like a board game

The last two years have been like a bad game of Snakes and Ladders. Do you remember that board game you played as a child? Sometimes the roll of the dice would take you to the base of a ladder and you would climb swiftly toward the goal at the top of the board. Other times you would land on a snake that slid you down, erasing your progress.
Living in a pandemic has been like that. Sometimes we surge ahead, feeling like we have this thing beaten down and then BOOM, we slip back into restrictions designed to save us from catastrophe.
I recall that some children would become frustrated with the Snakes and Ladders and get angry when they were losing the game. They might stomp their feet or shout and cry. They didn’t like this game and they weren’t going to play it anymore. This reminds me of the demonstrations we are seeing in Canada against public health measures. Some people are so frustrated with the climb and slide nature of pandemic restrictions that they have decided they no longer want to play the game. They are mad and they aren’t going to take it anymore.
I can empathize with feelings of anger and frustration, although I do not condone their actions.
I have been feeling frustrated and letdown too. I don’t like to have social events constantly put on hold. I want to hug my relatives without worrying about putting them into the ICU. I am tired of the constant changes the pandemic has imposed on my life.
But just because I feel like I am losing at the game, I don’t want to overthrow it. The Canadian democratic process is far from perfect, but its the best thing we have going for us at the moment. Let’s not stomp away from the game table. Let’s learn to play the game better.
As a person of a certain age, I have quite enough change in my life without someone threatening to overthrow the system. I need the comfort of familiar processes. I have spent a lifetime learning to live with what I have. I know how to protest peacefully and I have done so many times, with good effect.
In a democracy the government is not our enemy because WE are the government. Each eligible voter has the power to change how we are governed. Between elections we have the right and the responsibility to inform our elected officials about our views and suggest solutions to perceived problems. Refusing to play the game is not constructive. Because we are fed up with Covid restrictions doesn’t mean we should immediately resort to “the nuclear option.” Working within the system is frustratingly slow but is ultimately more productive. Let’s find a way in which we can all win at the game.

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