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Phrase: In the grip(s) of something
Estimated reading time: 3 minutes
At times I think how nice it would be to be a kid again.
Times like these, when we are in the grips of a pandemic, make me feel that way.
There would be no decisions to make, self-imposed deadlines to meet or challenges to overcome.
Someone else would control all that.
Fortunately, life only goes forwards, never backwards.
Once we are mature, we are free to make our own decisions, or that’s what we tell ourselves.
When we are in the grips of something, we experience something quite unpleasant over which we have no control.
People in other countries find themselves in the grips of things quite often.
It may be political scandals, wars, recessions, or pandemics, but no matter what, someone somewhere is in the grips of something.
If you live in Canada, you will find yourself in the grips of winter every year.
People in Western Japan and most of Eastern Japan have never experienced anything like a Canadian winter.
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The cold nips at your nose stings your cheeks when the wind blows, and numbs your fingers and toes as you walk from one place to another.
Those who find themselves unprepared and outside in the grips of a Canadian winter – die.
The same goes for the pandemic.
The countries that failed to realize, or realized too late, that the world was in the grips of a pandemic suffered tremendous loss of life.
The UK had to go into complete lockdown for three months because they had lost control of the situation.
When you are in the grips of something, whether it is a recession, war, pandemic or a Canadian winter, you have no control over what happens.
Flesch-Kincaid Readability Test
This post is understandable by someone with at least a 7th-grade education (age 12).
On the Flesch-Kincaid reading-ease test, this post scores 71.
The easier a passage is to read, the higher the score on a scale of 0 – 100.