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How is the coronavirus pandemic affecting your life right now? Tell us about your experiences, feelings, and thoughts.

Today I felt compelled to comment on a Covid related Facebook post that I disagreed with. Why did I feel the need to comment? Who knows. I know I’m not going to change anyone’s mind and I’m certainly not interested in getting into an argument with the Facebook connections of a former childhood friend of a friend! And yet, I posted then edited twice before being satisfied with my comment. I was civil and (I believe, I hope) not snarky, and the responses were civil and not particularly snarky, although to me their logic was seriously flawed. I couldn’t think of anything I really wanted to say that would add value so I didn’t respond further. And hence here we are: who knows how many more or less reasonable civil people who can’t or won’t engage in a conversation about the most immediately important issue of ours and our children’s lifetimes because we’ve already decided we can’t change minds. Or because we know we’re not willing to change our mind so why even discuss. I hope someone smarter than me is able to come up with good dialogue ideas to get people talking and open to actually hearing each other. Of course it’s not really fair because I hope in the end people would agree with me and get vaccinated, but I’m not sure I’m willing to seriously consider any Google-researched opinions about why I shouldn’t vaccinate my kid against a life threatening disease. So, back to just lurking and silently judging people I wouldn’t have given a second thought about were it not for Facebook and Covid…