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At the risk of sounding like a broken record, I write it again. Sports, like art, mimics life, or vice versa. No matter how strict the rules of the games are, some will violate, no matter the consequences. At the starting blocks, sprinters must be inanimate else they false start and forced out of the race before it even started.

How athletes absorb such a debacle is unthinkable, devoting their entire life to that one race only to lose at the starting line. Thankfully, the rules have been eased, minor movements no longer amount to false start unless a foot leaves the block earlier than the gun goes off. But still, there will be false starters, perhaps even more. It just happens.

Just like when ECQ eases to GCQ or any other Qs, violators of health protocols still queue. Many reasons aside, these two stand out, either they don’t know the risks, like the oblivious prey that is inches away from the predator, or they don’t fear consequences, like a rapist in fits of passion. Be it death penalty, it does not deter crime.

Blame it not on poverty or lack of education. Wealth, education, lineage or power does not set us apart from each other, after all. Even the most powerful person on earth, who is independently rich, refuses to mask while his people are infected and dying.

Health experts don’t lack for warning why we have to wear masks and stay away from each other. But no matter how clear, wise or simple the instructions are, some defy them. Even in a make or break test, a few takers deviate. It’s not that they are dumb. They just see things differently. We just don’t think alike. Exactly why there is democracy.

Before corona invented social distancing, basketball players know the rule of thumb. Any form of body contact may run afoul. But when the going gets tough, they get rough. You don’t grapple or block meters away from the ball, even if their arms have the longest reach. You need six counts of illegal body contact to foul out anyway. But Michael Jordan once said champions have presence of mind at the most crucial time.

Despite oath of sportsmanship, a few are bound to breach. Some even cheat. Stubborn. But we all are, some in habits, many in vices, many more in love. And now in sickness and in health, more than ever. It partly accounts for increased corona infection anywhere in the world. Universal, it is not unique to one country or region. Among others, this gap is what experts and leaders should cap.

For even the most disciplined people on earth have their fair share of the wayward. We may curse violators as undisciplined, irresponsible, insensitive, nonchalant, dumb or stupid, but they are here to stay with us anywhere we are. Be it in the government, private sector, academe or the church. Even in a family, the smallest unit of society, there is that black sheep who never discerns right from wrong. They will never see the point pointed at their face, especially where the viral enemy is invisible. Worse, if some protectors are.