Am I Scared? You bet! Should I be?

I sent a text to my SigO today. It read, “If even 1 case of Ebola breaks out here, we’re keeping the girls home and on lockdown.”

He replied, “LOL”.

I said, “I’m glad you think it’s funny. I’m NOT kidding!”

His reply shut me up, “If you’re that concerned, why don’t you go get your flu shot. The flu kills about 30K people each year while Ebola has taken 1.” Hard to argue with.

In theory and reality, he is right. And I do need to get my flu vaccine – on the sooner side, preferably. However, the mounting hysteria around the prospective Ebola outbreak is hard to ignore. With Obama assigning an “Ebola Czar” and only 5 airports allowing people to enter the USA from Ebola-stricken regions, it’s hard not to be fearful of the unknown. And then I get it. I’m afraid of the unknown. Who isn’t?

If we knew what to expect, we’d know how to fight it, deal wit it, beat it. With Ebola, the flu, an earthquake, a hurricane, someone walking into our Movie Theater or school with a gun…we don’t know what to expect and we don’t know how to fight it. And that’s just plain scary because it means we’ve lost control. But did we ever have it? Control, that is? I’m not so sure.

I think our world has become a darker place with scarier unknowns. Or at least it seems that way because we're living in the information age; constantly being “connected” allows our very big world to suddenly feel much smaller, scarier and right in our backyard. New Guinea, Sierra Leone - these are places that are pretty far away and yet they seem close. And while, yes, they deserve our attention and action and yes, they may seem close because of the current Ebola situation, I have to remember that they truly are not in our backyard.

What’s a lot closer? The flu – and flu season. So, I’m going to control what I can, try to turn down the volume on my own, personal anxiety channel and sign my girls and me up for our annual flu shots. That’s what I can control. That’s what I know, for sure.

Parenting: Get Into It!