Obedience

Obedience

noun

compliance with an order, request, or law or submission to another's authority.

Obedience and all its forms is not a popular word.  You don’t hear obey and disobey or disobedience anymore. The buzz word is compliance or non-compliance.  Obedience is for dogs.  Yesterday I was going to write about non-compliance but decided I needed to write about my Nan instead and so today I am dusting off the word obedience as my O word.  If you are offended by the word obedience and its submissive connotations then you have my permission to mentally substitute the word compliance.

I think it is part of the human condition to be disobedient. We love to flout the rules and “cheat” a bit in our every day lives.  We don’t like to obey every single rule.  We get a thrill out of disobeying, it makes us feel naughty and rebellious and we seem to like that.  You don’t think so?  Let me ask you this then.  Have you ever driven over the speed limit?  Failed to slow down at a yellow light?  Even driven through a red light late at night when no one is around?   Have you ever cheated on your diet?  Snuck in that forbidden piece of cake and revelled in the guilty pleasure?  Have you ever done something and sheepishly said I know I am not supposed to do this but I don’t care.  We all do it.  It’s how we maintain our sense of freedom, it’s what makes us feel like adults who can do whatever they want and you’re not the boss of me.   Sure, we know there are limits, and we follow them most of the time.  We don’t steal things, we don’t harm others, we don’t cheat on our spouses.   We are civilized.   We know we have to be that way or we would be in total anarchy.   So, we obey and call it compliance because that sounds so much better.  I will comply with your request is easier to swallow than yes, I will obey you. 

In this day and age where everyone is screaming about their human rights and their freedom to be who they are no matter what, it seems there is more and more disobedience in our society. More often we are hearing people saying they have a human right to do whatever they want because this is a free country. I like to think this happens more in the U.S than here in Canada, but we are not a country of saints either.  And this is a scary state of affairs, especially in this pandemic.

So many people I know are not obeying the rules set out by the World Health Organization or by our Prime Minister or our Premier.  They aren’t practising social distancing, they are not staying out of conservation areas or parks even when there are signs clearly forbidding them to be there.   They “have a right to live my life”. They are going for drives, ignoring the rule about non-essential travel.   They are ignoring the Stay At Home order because” it’s a free country and you can’t make me stay home if they don’t want to”.  So, they sneak out to have coffee with neighbours, or see their grandchildren or have a birthday party with just a few people.  They don’t realize or don’t care that their lack of obedience to the rules is putting everyone in jeopardy.   This is a very serious virus that can be transmitted without the person even knowing they are sick!   So just because you are healthy it doesn’t mean you can’t carry the virus to someone else.  And if that someone is immune-compromised it can be life-threatening.  We are supposed to be acting as if we have the virus, people!  Stay at home.  I know it’s hard.  Life is hard sometimes but we have to take these extreme measures whether we like it or not.

There is a disturbing trend happening now in the U.S that has me feeling very anxious.  People are starting to protest the stay at home order and demanding that the government reopen the country and get the economy going again.   They are protesting in groups, with no masks, and no social distancing!  It’s terrifying.   There will be people in those demonstrations who will infect or be infected because we are not through this yet!   People!  It’s your health, your life, you are risking.  The economy is just money.  Yes, we are struggling, but we are ALL struggling and the only way to stop the struggling is to OBEY the laws and stay home!  I really hope this is not a sign of things to come.  We will never be free of the virus if people start congregating in groups to protest.  I shudder to think what it will take to make people see how dangerous they are being.  And I am fervently hoping that Canadians have the good sense not to demonstrate!