The bellambivet blog is back, with a new look for 2022. I think I said a similar thing last year too, but that did not happen because of something called COVID, and in 2021 it was still COVD.
What an interesting few years to reflect upon, especially if the behaviour of people fascinate you, as it does me. We went from the extreme of generosity over the Black Summer fires, to “every man for himself” when it comes to toilet paper, milk, pasta and rice amidst the COVID 19 lockdown, to the anti-vaxers, conspiracy theorists and more.
These few years has exposed many parts of our personalities and our belief systems that probably even surprised ourselves. For me, I was surprised at how willing I was to sacrifice my business for the community health, from closing down temporarily to instituting COVID-19 safe practices before they were the thing to do.
I initially thought that others with the same scientific knowledge of infectious diseases would act similarly.
At the other end of the spectrum, were veterinary businesses who acted like it was nothing, and continued to operate as if it was “business as usual”. They were even proud of the fact that for them, nothing mattered other than to remain open, and they willingly and happily accepted everyone.
Society also wavered between the two also – from those who were happy to abide by the hygiene measures, who understood the changed systems, who welcomed the various shades of Dr Liz (Real, Email, Drop Off). Then there were those who propagated comments on FB pages that we were closed permanently or could not understand why we had to social distance people, or could not understand the instruction to wash their hands or sanitise on entry and exit.
As I entered 2020, I admittedly was pessimistic about our humanity that despite the selfless nature of fire fighter volunteers, at the same time, there were terrible images of people looting abandoned houses, stealing from charity bins or creating fake charities to steal funds.
As 2021 is ending, I think that we can all agree that there are good people out there in the world, that we are essentially a world based on kindness. We are not perfect, but we are perfectly human.
I am Dr Liz, the mad vet from Bellambi.