The Swine Flu Love Memories • 10.13.09
Today I can say with full confidence that in addition to living the hardest and most complexly simple and complex life within myself, I am also living the hardest and most complex life externally. The Swine Flu. What a beautiful name to a mysterious thing. The Mexican Flu. The H4561 flu. Whatever it is called, it is the final sign that anyone alive today, 2009, faces the biggest epidemic risk from a natural disease that we have seen so far in our life in the media, and on a massive scale. No longer do we have to listen to stories that start with “Back in the day, we had people left and right getting sick” in order to start realizing the meaning of everything. It is happening today, here, right now. One day you may be telling friends, family and strangers about the Swine Flu “back in the day.”
This article, including the above part, was written on April 30th, 2009, around 1am. It was lost in the catacombs of The Reasoner trenches that are wanting to see the light of the day until today, when Katie noticed it on my computer and told me to go ahead and post it. So here it is, unedited in its writing.
We have pneumonia. We have aids. We have cancer. We have bird flu. We have Teletubbies flu. We have everything. Today. Right here. Right now. If you want to get infected with a disease and die soon, chances are you can find a way to make it happen within a month. Or maybe 3 months.
Mexico was the keyword in all the newspapers till yesterday. And now, United States is in the start of a growing panic mode because of the small child that died in Texas to be deemed the first death from Swine Flu in the United States. In the Middle East, Israel wants to call the flu “Mexico Flu” instead of “Swine Flu“ because the Holy Land of the Muslims & Jews do not eat pork and it is considered unhealthy for them, but that is being protested by Mexico. Korea also wants to call the flu the “Mexican Virus“, much again to the protest of the Mexican government.
Mexico has issued respirators for everyone. They look cool. I want one too please. Never before has the idea of being confronted with a virus looked so real, and so scary. Is it all a hype? Is this just like any other flu, with the only difference being that this is a new outbreak and thus the news is playing up the hype? Still, I want a cool respirator please. I will wear it everywhere. Why not? San Francisco police is said to be officially going to start having all San Francisco Police Force to wear the Swine Flu Respirators within a week. Today, supposedly, the Zodiac’s identity was revealed in San Francisco. “The Zodiac has come to San Francisco.” What a cool quote. I have a better one: Move aside, Zodiac. The flu has come to San Francisco.
The economy is bad. The feelings with the outside world are bad. Our internal systems of businesses are bad. And now, even the micro organisms hate us. Or maybe they hate each other. I am not sure. No one is sure. How must the parents of that child must be feeling today? We feel and talk about that child more because he is in America. Yes. Hundreds of Mexican deaths can all be described numerically. But this child has to be discussed in detail in order to show how serious we should be towards paying attention to the media. Or is it real? I am not sure. What was the child’s name? What kind of toys did he like? Who are his parents? Are they ok now? Did the child have any brothers or sisters? How is his overall family? Did he suffer? What did he go through? I don’t know. Does anyone care outside of the media paper and page the news was on?
Not everyone in America wakes up thinking “I want America to be the biggest super power on the planet!” Not everyone in America wakes up thinking “Hah! Those Mexicans are always dirty and thus they are getting these diseases.” No. Majority of us, the majority that is now shown on the news, wakes up thinking “Ohhhh, so sleepy, need coffee, and then need to get to work” or “Hmmm ohhhh, so hungry, need to relax and then decide what to do.” We are humans, just like you. I am human, I hope. I feel like a human, but if I am not a human, how can I be sure I am a human to feel like a human? No one knows. Though we say we are.
Many people think Americans have no emotions. Americans include citizens, visitors living here for decades, illegal immigrants living here permanently, and all the animals and Bigfoot too. All of us do have emotions. Some show it in both extreme and non-existent ways like on this site. Others do not show it, like on this site also, while some others show it all the time and with full force, also like on this site. Regardless, we are doing everything we already were before the Swine Flu entered our vocabulary with such devotion. We are still going to the movies, and we are still having ice cream. We are still tweeting, and we are still walking around in the dark looking for new hiking routes. Some of us are still idiots, while some of us are still better. Some of us are still moronically selfish and manipulative individuals, while some of us are crying and wondering daily why we are being manipulated. Still, some of us just wake up, go to work, and come home and sleep. And if you did not realize it, every mention of the term “we” in this paragraph referred to all the human beings in this world.
People I know in Europe & Middle East are being advised to not come to the United States. I agree. Don’t panic, but avoid coming if you can. I do not know what it feels like to lose a son, but I know what it feels like to lose someone young. You decide. I am going to keep on doing everything. I am going to travel, going to go around taking pictures, going to meet people, going outside, and going to live. I am also going to try to get the respirator. Maybe because it may save my life. Or maybe because it looks very nice and I want to feel a respirator once again in life, after 18 years of not wearing one. Maybe the respirators are different than gas masks. In such a case, any respirator now may be my 2nd one. Otherwise, it would be the 3rd mask on my face in my life which may stay on for a while or during an emergency. Who knows.
It is now 2:24am. Not a single smiley in this article so far. Maybe it’s because I’m relaxed and tired at the same time. Let me go ahead and put a smiley –> 



. The World Health Organization WHO has labeled the Swine Flu a level 5, meaning it is one step short of becoming a worldwide plague in action. Level 5 means it is already on its way to becoming level 6. Let’s have 5 smileys–>

Forget about being associated with a certain culture or a certain country. Focus on humanity, and focus on yourself first. Wake up, and feel alive. And then feel that everything is hyped up or just an obstacle that you will either overcome or co-exist with. Not everything can be defeated. But you can try to keep on living in many weird situations.
Bird Flu. Cookie Flu. Swine Flu. Pig Flu. Mexican Flu. North American Influenza. Whatever the name may be, we keep on living. 10 years from now, articles like the Wikipedia entry on the Swine Flu will make it look like the entire world was crying and weeping on April 30th, 2009. No. 99% of us are not weeping over this flu. Our own President was getting applauds and joking around earlier today. This is just another news. The show must go on. We must go on. The difference between the show and us is, the show is there to get attention. We have to go on in order to keep on living and in order to co-exist with this new beginning.
So maybe this is how people felt in the 70’s when the previous Swine Flu outbreak was. Wikipedia article, once again, shows it as being kind of a big thing that caused millions of people’s lives to change drastically and immediately. Of course, Wikipedia also portrays the same impression about today’s 2009 Swine Flu outbreak, though I don’t notice anyone’s life changing drastically in California because of this. Has your life completely changed? Hmmmm.
The good thing is to see how your life has changed, and how the media says your life has changed. Then we can try to decide whether it is the flu that is the real outbreak, or the media. And we have the necessary power to deploy forces in any part of the world within 24 hours. But we do not have enough injections or medicine necessary to give to the entire population for the next 6 months. Brilliant! Clap with me please!
*If you’re dumb dumb and would like to be called a dumb dumb clap your hands! CLAP CLAP* – Bes
To everyone dying in all parts of the world, and their families, and their neighbors, and their friends, and their enemies, and their fellow human beings, do realize that there are others that realize what life is too. And they are living it also. And they have their own life and ideas too. Many of us have not forgotten you, nor disrespected you, on purpose. We may have our life to think about, the way you have your life to think about. We may just have other sidetracking things going on at the same time, like life itself. Even if it is at 2:42am.
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3:30 am. My phone is ringing. The famous Cingular ringtone is playing, and I start wondering about things. It is someone with a relationship issue on the other line; someone I met last week in class. “Ok, tell me in detail what she did.” It is someone called Bes, and he is complaining to me. His story goes on for hours, but the alarm clock says it’s 3:30 am. Is the clock not working?
Sure, he entertains others, he can keep on talking. But no one knows him personally. No one knows whether he is single or not. Most don’t know where he lives. No one knows about his childhood, about his life, about his current situation. Most don’t know why he does things, or what he does most of the time. Most don’t know his birthday. Most don’t even know his real name. Do you?
People say he is funny and a nice guy; however, very rarely does anyone inquire much about Bes the way he inquires about others. He shows real interest in other people because he has real interest in other people, and he revolves his current life and everything around almost any person he hangs out with. I come back to my senses and look at the clock; it still says 3:30 am. “You want someone else out there like your own self?” I ask. It can be pretty hard to ask Bes any personal questions, for he is a master of detours and can easily answer things to your satisfaction without revealing anything about himself, even if he wanted to. “Heh“, he sighs heavily in a cheerful mood and then becomes quiet.
“When I was in the hospital last year,” Bes said, “the hospital sent a student nurse or a psychologist-in-training for 2 nights straight to allow me to talk to her so I don’t feel depressed or anything because of being stabbed. Usually, people who get stabbed get someone to talk to them afterwards to make sure they are ok. This was 2 days after I gained consciousness. After 2 nights of her coming and not being able to get me to talk about anything personal, I spent the next 8 days listening to her problems, her cries and her issues and told her what I thought was right or wrong.
Sure, businesses love that, the very thing Bes has become on the outside, as he can work perfectly and do miracles even when his personal life is in chaos, for he rarely loses his cool, he rarely shows his weak point, he rarely shows his inner self. He never wants to show anything personal to anyone who does not care a full 100%, and thus he rarely feels the need to express himself to any individual most of the time. But Bes, himself, knows that such a thing, even though it is alive and well, can maybe go through a change. What kind of a change? Who knows. I wonder if he knows what kind of a change he wants. I do know that he is tired of being only a listener in all personal situations. In businesses, he is more than comfortable in almost anything, so that is not part of the topic here.
Early yesterday morning, someone told me that I was a nice person because I had moved my cell phone and some other things from an empty chair next to me in a hospital emergency room. That person was simply waiting for someone, and there were many other empty chairs also. Me freeing up one more chair for that other person to choose from was the same as performing a voluntary action which was in turn considered a nice action in that person’s view.