Soap, sugar, bread and water

I took a late night trip to Target yesterday, and witnessed the remnants of what I'm sure was a frenzy comparable to Black Friday.

Whole shelves vacant, with nothing left but damaged merchandise or half consumed Starbucks beverages.

To my surprise, I found that (with the exception of soap and bottled water) bread, baking mixes, and candy were the among the most consumed items. Which struck me as a little odd, because not unlike nasty pathogens, these things aren't particularly good for you either. Apparently the best way to stay calm and healthy(?) amid a crisis is to put yourself in a sugar-induced food comma.

And then there's the panicking, the undue stress, the anxiety that likely caused this mess. Frenetical thinking that probably caused more harm than good, because that's what panicking does--it causes you to make reckless decisions on the fly, often without much thought as to if those choices actually help you and those you care about.

Speeding on the freeway to get to your destination, navigating through a stampede of (potentially sick) people to grab a bar of soap, consuming sugar with reckless abandon...these things can cause just as much harm than any virus, and with a 3% mortality rate, probably even more so.

Of course, you'll never make that connection if you're so consumed in worrying about what might happen that you throw everything—your health, your happiness, your level-headedness—up and out the door.