By Amelia Hamilton
Welcome to Are We Doomed? The weekly column in which I take a look at recent news and try to determine if it’s all downhill from here.
Look for the helpers
If you are a regular reader of this column, you know that I believe we need to take the advice of Mrs. Rogers (Mr. Rogers’ mom) and look for the helpers in any crisis. This week, millions of people were without electricity (and, therefore, heat) and water for days in the middle of a huge winter storm. But, look for the helpers, like Mattress Mack in Houston:
Or Deep Eddy in Austin:
Verdict: We can’t control the weather, but we can control how we react. People shared their homes and businesses with large platforms helped others find water and other resources. We can’t be doomed when there are so many helpers in every crisis.
Now is not the time
An ebola epidemic has broken out in Guinea. I really have nothing else to add.
Verdict: Plague on plague? I think we might be doomed.
Sister André has no time for your plague
Speaking of plagues sister André, a nun in France, contracted COVID last month along with 80 other residents of her retirement home. She said she didn’t feel a thing and didn’t even realize she had it- and was out of quarantine in time to celebrate her 117th birthday.
Verdict: Sister André is obviously wonderful and we aren’t doomed at all when the world’s oldest person has survived two pandemics, two world wars, and being French.
Thar she blows
Verdict: This doesn’t seem good. Doom potential is high with this one.
All Creatures Great and Small
Are you guys watching All Creatures Great and Small on Masterpiece Theater? It’s so good and the guy who played Neville Longbottom ended up hot, but that’s not the point of this entry.
The point is that tennis player Naomi Osaka was about to serve at the Australian Open when she stopped to save a butterfly.
Verdict: How can we be doomed in a world where people pause in one of the biggest moments of their lives and careers to save a butterfly? And where Neville Longbottom grew up hot?
Dolly is everything
Dolly Parton is a national treasure and must be protected at all costs.
Verdict: Her request that she not be given a statue only makes me want to give her a statue even more. Dolly might be the only thing between the world and doom.
Verdict: Say it with me- if we all endeavored to deserve dogs, the world would have no doom at all.
In the final analysis… Are Ebola and Etna any match for dogs and Dolly? Only time will tell. For now, however, we aren’t doomed.
Want to know if your situation is doomed? Write and tell me about what’s going on and I’ll let you know what you can do to keep the doom at bay (unless it’s just totally doomed, in which case I’ll tell you that, too). You can tweet me @ameliahammy using #AskAmHam, message me through my Facebook page, or e-mail editorial@velvethamster.com. Let me help!