It's absolutely not about COVID, but maybe it should be

It’s not just an obsession with Sontag’s work, I had good reason for selecting the three touchstones of You’re sick and (it’s your fault) and limiting my thinking to them.

• Cancer: The company Dad co-founded, the one that still contributes to my standard of living, also contributed exacerbating factors to the cancer that killed him. Could he, should he, have stepped away harder, faster when he realized he hit the vulnerability jackpot? (He was one in a large number of those sensitive to a chemical that only one in an even larger number are ever exposed to.)
• Tuberculosis: I spent a year under treatment prior to writing this (those are my in-patient x-rays on the cover) and given the likelihood that it lay dormant in my system for decades, any discussions of when and how I might have been infected are officially in my past. Full stop.  
• AIDS: I came of age during the 80’s and one of the first jobs I had out of college was as an editorial researcher for a publisher whose subject matter and audience were deeply affected by the AIDS crisis (I remember being tasked with researching–pre-Internet–Adrian Hurley, the Australian basketball coach who wanted Magic Johnson benched.) 

I had more than enough material, and already was fighting disconnect and drift with the cards and mechanics (Well, this doesn’t quite fit in.) Additionally:

• There’s a lot we don’t know about the survivors. Long COVID is real. Brain fog is real. Lung damage is real. The details beyond that? We’re still in the vaccine/breakthrough variants race.

• There is so much noise and stupidity. From the loudest Blue Lives Matter voices fighting mask and vaccine regulations for cops, to the injectable bleach and deworming crowd, to…even RPG’s, where “over-the-top” is often the foundation of fun, it’s just too much.

Too much mess. Too much thematic clutter as is.

Nope.

This game is not about COVID. 

Nope nope nope. 

Not going to think about–

–but isn’t thinking that whole point of solo-journaling games, especially this one?

And then people who I really respect got COVID late in the game. And my reactions? 

• I wanted to ask all the wrong questions.
• I was mad at them.
• I was mad at everyone around them. 
• I wanted to wallow in guilt, self-flagellate for the privilege of being relatively safe.

Effectively everything that You’re Sick (and it’s your fault) is supposed to help someone be aware of, move beyond.

Yikes. We’ve got more variants, the next wave coming. I’ve got boosters running through my system when billions are still waiting for their first dose, a new box of N-95s, and a relatively risk-free existence.

I also apparently have a lot of thinking, a lot more work to do. Should I add language to this game? Develop a COVID specific version? 

Eager to hear more voices. (The value of which will be my next devlog).