We go down the shore with my family every late July, and I usually look forward to it, but the prospect of such a vacation is instead this year giving me a heaping case of anxiety. Being told by the government that we cannot visit Wildwood, NJ this year would not be the worst-case scenario. No, the worst case scenario would be that we ARE legally allowed to go down the shore for the week, but only because the government is being wildly irresponsible in staying open despite mass death, and the rest of my family is listening to the government, and pressing up against other warm infected bodies on NJ's trashiest boardwalk, and everyone assumes that because it's legally allowed that I will also bring my wife and kids to this same shore house, to live in the same house as people who are clearly not taking this as seriously as they should (though more seriously than the average American, perhaps).
That would be the worst case scenario, to have to explain to my parents why I am voluntarily skipping our annual family vacation. Being told it's illegal to go to Wildwood would almost be a blessing at this point.
Obviously, I wish none of this was a concern. I wish I didn't have to worry about people not giving a single fucking shit about a deadly invisible disease, but apparently this the world we are currently living in. I'm not trying to be self-righteous, and claim that I am performing self-quarantine perfectly. But does it feel to anyone else like all of a sudden no one cares at all? The weather is nice, for sure, but does no one believe that this is still a fucking threat?
I wrote a couple months ago, at the beginning of all this, that the best silver lining about this whole thing was that at least our mission was the same—to prevent death—and the way to go about that was agreeable and easy to understand—just stay the fuck home. When I wrote that, I failed to remember that human beings are by and large incredibly stupid and ignorant and selfish, not giving a fuck about the possibility of killing their friends if it means they get to have a BBQ picnic with them. Let's murder our mothers on Mother's Day, who cares?
I know this is an exaggeration, and I'm really just venting here. But whereas at the beginning of the stay-at-home order, I felt a togetherness with my fellow man, now I just feel alone. I can't wrap my head around the idea that I'm trying to be responsible and stay indoors and I look outside my front window and see dozens of people hanging out and shaking hands and sharing beers and wearing their face masks around their chins. I just don't fucking get it. As a society, are we that weak? That ignorant? That impatient?
I will not be able to say any of this to my parents, if the COVID rates are as high as they are now in two months, and my parents still decide to head down to North Wildwood. I wouldn't call them ignorant. Maybe just too willing to take an unwise chance at sickness in order to keep the tradition alive. Whatever. I just hope I feel some way besides how I feel now. I'm just fucking confused, that society is so broken that we can't sacrifice a little bit to keep people healthy. Clearly that's not the case. Am I in the wrong here?
I'm still venting. I probably wouldn't have if this beer wasn't named what it was.
NOTES
BEER: Goin' Down the Shore (I contemplated for a good long while whether "Down" should be capitalized or not. It could be a preposition, which would've been lowercase, but I decided that it was an adverb in a Philadelphian-butchered phrase that really should read "going down to the shore.")STYLE: American Wild Ale
ABV: 4.4%
BREWED BY: River Horse Brewing Co.
LOCATION: Ewyn, NJ
PURCHASED AT: IGA
PAIRED WITH: homemade fish tacos
GRADE: 3.5 pukes out of 5
BEER COUNT: 192.5
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