Scenes From a Modern Pandemic

There was this undercurrent of panic coursing just beneath the surface at the store this morning that was most unsettling. Like we were one cough away from pandemonium. People cast their gazes about frantically, eyes darting from shelf to shelf in a twisted pantomime of dream induced REM, fearful of making contact. The dreamlike quality of the moment didn’t end there. Everyone was moving in asynchronous, vaguely disconnected gaggles, shuffling from one disappointment to another dead end. My primitive lizard brain began hammering at the base of my neck, the klaxon alarm of impending danger echoed hollowly against the inside of my skull bringing all Fight or Flight systems fully online. The moment, like all that have come before, passed and was survived but I can’t help but wonder that if breakthroughs are genuinely forged on the razors edge, what will our world look like on the other side of this?