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Trump On Steroids, Life On Hold

Is that light at the end of the tunnel? Or is it the crazy train?

Jan M Flynn
6 min readOct 8, 2020
Image by TaylorSmith from Pixabay

Election Day is less than a month away

And the closer it gets, the more unsettling and surreal life becomes. Even if you avoid the 24-hour news channels it’s impossible to ignore the tension building in the collective consciousness. We’re all under relentless, upwards-ratcheting stress.

Walking out your door has become an exercise in risk management. With contention rather than consensus coming from our national leadership as to how to navigate life in a pandemic, we’re all left on our own to determine what measures, if any, we take to protect ourselves and others. Which also leaves us uncertain as to what we can expect from our neighbors. Can you ask the guy who’s standing too close to you in line to step back or put on his mask, or will that put you in more danger than his possibly Covid-laden breath? People are getting shot out there, after all.

Figuring out whether or not to attend a social gathering or send your child off to in-person classes is a matter of constant calculation, an equation that lacks sufficient information to solve. Without clear guidance, we talk about what we’re “comfortable” with rather than relying on evidence-based, clearly stated rules.

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Jan M Flynn
Jan M Flynn

Written by Jan M Flynn

Novelist, essayist, inner space explorer. GRIFFIN SPEAKER, book one of a middle grade fantasy series, coming from Disney-Hyperion in spring 2026.

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