don't cry over spilled golden milk...or maybe you should

a post pandemic pet peeve that points to a larger problem

In that moment I was so appalled that with one large "come on!" gesture I literally spilled my lovely golden milk all over my teal blue living room rug.

one of my pet peeves

As a professional singer with anxiety and OCD, I have always been a slight germaphobe. Very slight. More of a master germ observer. I'm hyper aware of them but I don't let them control my life. I take my toddler to the playground and I let him touch everything without reaching for the hand sanitizer every five seconds. I climb with him and notice that my hands feel increasingly sticky but I keep playing but will be sure not to touch my face. I don't like sharing food with people- I definitely don't share drinks and I really REALLY don't like being around overtly contagious people. The exception, of course, being my kids, husband, or if someone really needs my help. But beyond that...nope. Getting sick is a big deal for me. I'm a singer, a voice teacher, and I'm chronically ill. A normal "head cold" could prevent me for working for weeks and exacerbate many of my chronic symptoms or cause a flare-up.

So what's my pet peeve? When people are clearly sick and go about life with zero awareness, consideration, precaution, or say "it's just a head cold" or "don't worry, it's not Covid." For obvious reasons this pet peeve has slowly gotten stronger since 2020 and what used to be a lap dog size pet peeve is now a Mastiff.

The commercial

So today I'm sitting in my living room enjoying my daily turmeric and oat milk latte- or Golden Milk as it's called- while my 2 year old played with his Picasso Tiles. Pretty quickly my brief moment of calm was interrupted by a new Walgreens commercial. The commercial showed an ill husband that burst into his wife's room to announce that he wasn't feeling well and had a fever. She was sick too and they started ordering generic DayQuil online. The commercial was advertising Walgreen's delivery service so the next frame was a delivery person dropping off the medicine to the feverish man face to face. In that moment I was so appalled that with one large "come on!" gesture I literally spilled my lovely golden milk all over my teal blue living room rug.

overreaction...maybe...maybe not?

So, I realize that I'm clearly sensitive to this topic and that most seeing that commercial won't think twice or some reading this may be asking yourself what the big deal is. To me this small scripted moment in a commercial points to a larger problem or at least begs some questions:

• Why not have the delivery person wear a mask?

• Why are we still not encouraging contactless delivery- especially for this type of service?

• Is Walgreens being irresponsible or reckless with this commercial?

• Did we not just come out of a pandemic?

• Is Covid still, like, a thing?

• Are other viruses like the flue a thing?

• How many people are still bothered by people coughing in public? Do people not notice anymore?

• How many people watching the commercial would even notice the offending moment?

I don't think we should walk around in fear of getting sick. I don't think we should all walk around I masks all the time. I do think Walgreen's delivery service is convenient and necessary and realize that it prevents sick people from going out in public to get their cough suppressant. The carelessness of the commercial just seems to play into the mindset that is so prevalent in our society. The mindset that says, "It's okay, I'm sick but it's not Covid" or "I'm sick but I don't care enough to wear a mask" or "masks don't do anything" or "the media isn't talking about Covid anymore so I can go back to how I was living before."

---

Humans are so good at forgetting bad things- they're wired to. If we didn't we wouldn't function. We definitely wouldn't have more than one child. Look how, predictably, quickly we as a whole have forgotten how shitty the pandemic was (is?). But, there is a difference between choosing not to learn from our mistakes or not to adapt to the new realities in our world and just forgetting for self preservation's sake. The former is born of selfishness, lack of clear education, MISinformation, political influence, convenience and media influence, etc. Not wearing a mask when you know you are sick or know you are going to encounter someone who is sick seems, well...stupid. Many are still impacted by Covid, the flu, insert virus, even a boring old URI can wreak havoc on some. We just don't hear about it anymore. Would a choice like having the delivery person wear a mask or promote contactless delivery make a difference? I think it's a question worth asking.