Michael Jones: Keep it Simple: 'Tis the season to celebrate

This holiday season, we will be celebrating twice over: once for Christmas and once for the fact my two oldest grandchildren, ages 8 and 11 are now fully vaccinated.

I don't know which will be more exciting: opening a pair of socks come Christmas morning or hugging my grandkids knowing they have taken an important step in protecting their health and safety, as well as their fellow classmates, teachers, parents, me and my wife and the public at large, by helping to get this crazy pandemic under control.

Call me a COVID-19 nerd. Go ahead. Mock me for wearing a mask to the grocery store. Call me one of the sheeple for stepping up and getting a vaccine as soon as I could, and, GASP, got right back in line this fall to proudly roll up my sleeve for my booster shot. Go ahead — I know that roughly half of you reading this have made no effort to help bring this deadly health pandemic under control by refusing to mask up and to shun the vaccine line which would likely save hundreds of lives a day in this country if only 60 percent of us made the choice to be part of the solution rather than part of the problem by getting vaccinated.

While you folks are left to wonder whether it will be Uncle Ed or cousin Patsy who will bring COVID-19 home for Christmas and get unvaccinated gramps so sick he will wind up hospitalized and on a ventilator, I will be hugging the heck out of my grandkids for their commendable behavior which they have modeled so well during this pandemic and have gladly done their part to help when the time came for them to protect themselves and others by getting vaccinated once the 5-12-year-old group was approved to do so.

I look forward to going cross country skiing with those grandkids at Christmas and watching them pull their two younger cousins (6 months and 2 years) around the yard on sleds. And yes, when the under 5 set is approved to receive a simple poke in the arm, I will nerdily and proudly give them a big hug for their efforts even though they won't know why I am so proud of them. Call me a sheepie or a naïve fool if you want, but I am proud of my grandkids and everyone else who has taken personal responsibility for helping to end this pandemic all in the name of the common good.

I know masks and vaccinations are not fool-proof in keeping the virus at bay, but they are a heck of a lot more effective than doing nothing, which is the path way too many of my fellow Americans have chosen to walk down. That path is filled with misinformation about the virus and pandemic as well as a willful, smug ignorance of reality. It is a deadly path that we need to stop traipsing down.

If my young grandchildren can do the right thing, I know you folks out there who have been resistant so far to making a difference, can also do the right thing. There is hardly any effort at all required to wear a mask in public places. No big deal to get vaccinated and save lives. This is on you folks out there, and I am counting on you to do the moral and ethical thing by finally taking the health and safety of everyone around you seriously.

Make this old COVID-19 nerd happy and ring in the new year with a resolution to get vaccinated and save a life. Quite possibly your own. As other COVID-19 nerds are fond of saying, "It's easy-peasy."

— Michael Jones is a columnist and contributor for the Gaylord Herald Times. He can be reached at mfomike2@gmail.com.