Keep your fingers crossed

It’s difficult not to think that the vaccine disbelievers are a self-limiting species — and that thought can be considered unkind since many people bring on such problems themselves without trying to worsen things for someone else.

Regardless of how much some folk might deserve to depart this life sooner than later, feeling good about their fates should make us feel bad about ourselves rather than fortunate. At the risk of being embarrassingly unsympathetic we can at least find comfort in realizing such folk didn’t meet their end on our watch. Or at least that we didn’t cause it — if we didn’t.

The good news is that the pandemic will end someday, perhaps sooner than later, and life will eventually go back to the way it was before such a plague hit us. And for most of us that is a good thing, though obviously there are millions who would not want to go back to what they had before. For many of them there is nowhere to go but up. Almost any change is a good change though sometimes it doesn’t seem that way.

In the meantime we must deal with the problem that millions of people are being lost to the pandemic, many of them good folks and some we know. It is a shame that such catastrophes reoccur so often, but we can take some comfort in knowing that we didn’t deliberately or stupidly cause the problem. It is not an avoidable tragedy like driving drunk or drugged.

Getting behind the wheel when our faculties are under the influence of drugs or alcohol — or even just anger or stupidity — can often be written off as a problem caused by our own failings. But those are human flaws. And while such problems are avoidable, they are rarely easily avoided. If they were we would simply avoid them.

Many people do leave this life because of their own failings. That obviously doesn’t mean that their problems should be ignored. If we can help others avoid tragedy, we should do it. And there are a great many situations that fit such a description.

If we can help others bypass disaster, by all means do so. And that includes those many people who might be considered deserving of a premature ending to their miseries. But those of us who can help such folks might want to think twice before wishing them out of their existing situations, however miserable they might be. It is an unfortunate fact that some people have nowhere to go but down.

When asked for examples, many would simply point to the homeless since many of them obviously have so much room for improvement in their situations. Or so it seems. When you think about it you can never be sure that the change you wish on anyone, yourself included, will be better than what exists already.

The message you can take from this — and there certainly seems to be one — is to be careful what you wish for. And for sure think about what you are doing before you do it. In the end you will have to make a decision one way or another, even if that means you must make a painful choice

You can never be certain that what you wish for will be better than the alternative. But sometimes you must just make a decision and hope for the best. And that is true whether you act out your life on the world stage or in your neighborhood.

One thing you might want to consider doing — since it has minimal downside — is to cross your fingers and keep the good thoughts flowing.

But don’t blame me if things don’t work out. I was on your side and tried to warn you.

Tom Brennan is an Anchorage columnist and author of six books. He was a reporter/columnist for The Anchorage Times and an editor and columnist at The Voice of The Times.