I have a mother. She is elderly and has been going through a rough patch. She is currently in rehab after a second surgery. The facility she is in is experiencing a small Covid outbreak. They are not quarantined, but they suggest not visiting. I visit anyway. I am respectful and follow the rules and protocols, but I will always check in on my mother.

Interestingly, I feel a social pressure associated with this. Whether it is real or not I sense judgements. Perhaps I am only judging myself. There is a sense of being politically pigeonholed into a radical right wing fringe. A feeling that I am being branded anti-establishment, anti-vaccine, and anti everything else. The reality is that I am a man. A man who, over hundreds of thousands of years, has evolved the trait of taking uncalculated risks.

I take solace in the fact that all of the uncalculated risks I take are for things larger than myself; established principles, proactive goals, and community advancement. I do not take uncalculated risks for personal pleasure, self advancement, or radical theories.

Logic and reason will never keep a good man from visiting his ailing mother. It would be better to try a howitzer and several phalanxes of dragoons.