Isolating On Down to New Normal

Crumbling up newspapers to start a fire in the wood stove this morning, I came across the Seattle Times issue of March 2, 2020.

The headline reads: “2nd U.S. coronavirus death in King County; more cases likely”

I could not help but think, aw, look how sweet and naïve we were a couple of months ago, before schools and businesses were shut down, before people were thrown out of work, before the unemployment offices were swamped, before people were dying in the tens of thousands.

There is a guy named Matt on TV whose ad has been playing a lot. He says, “One thing we know for sure is that we’ll be getting back to normal …”

Every time I see that ad I yell, “NO, Matt, we are NOT getting back to normal!”

For one thing, over the last few months, say from December to the end of April, a lot of people would have died in the regular course of events. Add to that number this year an extra two hundred thousand deaths, give or take, attributed to the coronavirus.

That’s an estimate based on the recorded numbers, but the recorded numbers for the pandemic are sketchy.

The United States leads the world in the number of confirmed coronavirus infections and deaths. The numbers vary depending on your source, but as of Saturday, April 25, several sources report that the US has had more than 50,000 deaths from COVID-19.

The fact is, we don’t really know how many people have been infected by the coronavirus. We don’t know how many people have died without being tested or diagnosed. We don’t know how many infected people have not been counted. We do not know how many governments are lying about their statistics.

Doctors are still learning about what this virus does, and how it behaves. Yes, it can make mush of your lungs and lead to multiple organ failure, but it can also make blood clots throughout your body and give you pulmonary embolisms or major strokes. At first it was believed that older people were more vulnerable, but the virus turns out to be more egalitarian than that regarding the age of its victims.

So, families and friends of about two hundred thousand people are grieving, along with the millions who are grieving the deaths that were going to happen anyway.

We are not going back to the normal we knew.

I dream about the new normal. Wouldn’t it be great if the pandemic brought about national healthcare in America, like there is in the rest of the free world?

Why is medicine still a for profit business in America? Why do people lose their homes, lose everything, because of medical bills they can’t pay, even when they have insurance? Short answer: there is too damn much money to be made. Money is more important than people’s health or welfare in this country.

Wouldn’t it be great if the people who could make a change realized that there must be a financial safety net when there is a worldwide emergency that affects every single person?

I saw a mean looking man with a bow tie on television the other week. He was saying that we had to beware of this pandemic making the welfare state expand.

I wanted to reach through the screen and crush his windpipe. That impulse was unChristian and unworthy, and I pray for forgiveness, but a person gets tired of the conscienceless rich getting richer and the poor getting deader.

Heck, yes, expand the welfare state. Shave a small percentage off the defense budget and stop starving people and leaving people homeless and depriving children of education.

Yeah. That would get Mr. Bow Tie’s knickers in a twist.

Wouldn’t it be great if the new normal included time to be ourselves, time to be with our families, time not to be running our butts off to chase the almighty dollar, and included our current awareness of how precious we are to one another, and our being kinder to one another? You know, like now?

Some places are “opening up” now. Some people are refusing to isolate or quarantine because they think it impinges on their liberty. I’m thinking, great. Here comes the next surge of infections.

The coronavirus has made it easier for a lot of us to ask, “How are you?” because we really want to know, and to say, “I love you,” because we do, and we know there may not be another chance to say it, or hear it.

Which reminds me: I love you, you wicked monkeys. Get out there and laugh at a stuffed shirt today.

Wash your hands. Wear your mask. Keep your distance. Stay safe. We need you.

Blessings.

The Consolation in Isolation

“There is no guidebook for living through this, but we will, and we are.”

“We've seen some beautiful things emerge from this time of tragedy.”

“We as a people, are really beginning to see that as it turns out, we need each other.”

“We're going to get through this together.”

“The pain we feel today will be the strength we feel tomorrow.”

~ “Do you know what all of those statements have in common? They are all quotes from refugees that I've met over my years doing humanitarian work and those statements are so relevant to us all right now.” – Aid worker in Syria

Perhaps you have noticed that since the shelter in place rules have come down, many people are discovering unexpected feelings of happiness, unity, and community, and a new closeness with their families.

I thought that might be a first world phenomenon, until I read that dispatch from my friend working with refugees in Syria, refugees who have fled their homes which are now rubble, refugees who have lost family and friends to bombing.

The human spirit is a crazy thing, isn’t it, finding beautiful things in tragedy?

In this country, we are not fleeing war, we are fleeing a virus, and many of us are living life at a slower rhythm. We are not waking up to an alarm, stressing all day to meet expectations while trying to stay afloat in the fire swamp of office politics with its rodents of unusual size. Not chauffeuring the kids to lessons, sports, etc., rushing to make dinner, helping with homework, rushing to get chores done, rushing to night classes or meetings, having sex if it’s a sex night, maybe getting some sleep, getting up and doing it all over again.

Or some variation of that run-like-hell schedule.

Nope. It’s all different. Maybe you’re working at home. Maybe you don’t have a job anymore. Maybe you have kids at home, perhaps home schooling, perhaps doing online school.

Maybe you are retired, and life hasn’t changed that much, except for not being able to gather with friends. Perhaps you are an artist, a writer, a musician, and you have been doing solitary work at home or in a studio for years. No more rehearsals or classes right now.

Before the industrial revolution kicked off, the human raced pooped along in its tribal village way for thousands of years. In the early 1800s we had to begin to adjust to spinning jennies, and then steam engines, railroads and factories, steamships, automobiles, the typewriter, the telephone, electric light so we could work longer hours, and before you knew it, aeroplanes, modern war, the Spanish flu, the Roaring Twenties followed by the Great Depression followed by World War II.

Inhale.

And release.

My cohort – the baby boom - was born into the mid-20th century and grew up with the Cold War, rock and roll, and the fear of nuclear annihilation, followed by Gen X, Gen Y, the Millennials, honestly, I have not kept track of all the Gens and their labels.

Comes now the novel coronavirus, mowing down people all over the world.

Normal life has come screeching to a halt, except for medical caregivers and other essential occupations, of course. They are literally working themselves to death.

To.

Death.

There are people who think the virus is bogus, just a little flu. They go on doing what they please, when and where they please, and they ain’t wearing no stinking face masks. That would be fine, if they weren’t making other people sick, and if there weren’t innocent people who love and depend on them.

Most of us are staying home and following the rules when we go out. We wear masks, and we keep our distance from other people.

We live this new slow rhythm of life, which is somehow … friendlier. Technology and progress ripped us away from our family and village roots, developing much faster than humans were able to evolve. Our great jobs, our dashing about, our always being tired, living for the pursuit of the almighty dollar and power – tain’t natural, not for people who still have their souls.

So we isolate and move more slowly. With the internet we can stay in touch with people and have online appointments and meetings and conversations and church services and other gatherings.

I am not saying technology is bad. I think we need to run technology, instead of technology running us, that’s all. Technology is saving lives, and technology will defeat the novel coronavirus.

In the meantime, slowing down and finding the beautiful gifts in this tragedy is a good thing.

One last thing: rest in peace, John Prine. Thank you for the beautiful gifts of your songs, and for who you were, and how we became better because of you.

This Is Not a Dystopian Movie

As I write the United States has the dubious distinction of leading the world in the number of confirmed Covid 19 infections.

We’re number one!

Those of us who wish to survive this plague and live to see another day are washing our hands, disinfecting surfaces, maintaining social distancing, and staying home.

Some healthcare workers are literally laying down their lives. We know what real heroes look like now.

If we are not healthcare providers, life is slower for many of us. Some of us haven’t left the house for weeks. We’re reading books and taking naps and tackling projects, like sewing medical masks. Our bodies are confined, but our spirits are breaking free: we go outside to garden, we sing, we dance.

Being an introvert who likes to stay at home, isolating has been okay for me. I know that extroverts are suffering, and some people who live alone are feeling hard loneliness. At this point contact with family and friends is of vital importance. At this point we are grateful for the telephone and the internet.

My church streams Morning Prayer on Sundays on Zoom. Still working on how we all use the app, but we’re working on it, separately and together. It is good to be part of this community which has been so close for so long.

Some of you are keeping in touch via Skype and other video connections. Being able to see and hear each other in real time – way cool.

Art, music, reading, gardening, rest, exercise, helping where you can, these things are getting us by. I know I’m missing options that are working for some of you. Crosswords have been big for me.

There are zillions of dance, meditation, and exercise videos on Youtube. Did you know that the Vashon Athletic Club is live streaming classes for free now? Go to their web site and click on the live streaming banner.

Oh – while I’m thinking of it, big kudos to the Vashon-Maury Food Bank. They are doing an amazing job of keeping people fed. Thank you.

And a big thank you to all you nurses and doctors and first responders and pharmacists and grocery store employees and liquor store and dispensary employees (‘bout blew my mind to find out that cannabis stores were considered “essential”) and all you other Vashonites who are keeping things going, taking care of the rest of us in this interesting time.

A lot of people are thinking that relying on digital processes will not go away when the pandemic slows down – working remotely is too easy and more efficient and green in many cases than commuting to work, not to mention that disabled people have been begging to be able to work from home for years, and it’s about time.

The shutting down of “non-essential” businesses is a severe hardship on many working people and businesses – ruinous, in fact. Renters are wondering how they’ll pay their rent in April and May. Homeowners are wondering how they’ll pay their mortgages and the first half of their property taxes.

There is talk of mortgage and rental forgiveness, and financial assistance, and no evictions or mortgage foreclosures.

The Congressional stimulus package which will mostly stimulate the prostate glands of aging white billionaires might help working people a little. How far does $1200 go these days?

The hopeful part is the way so many people are responding to the pandemic. They have come together to help the sick and the families of the sick, to help each other, to cheer each other up, to feed each other, to literally save each other’s lives in every way. This is humanity at its best.

The sad and heartbreaking thing is that health care workers and their patients and people who never make it to health care are getting sick and dying. A whole new unexpected burden of grief weighs on the world, more than we would have in the natural course of this time.

The most enraging thing about this plague for me so far has been that the first and only consideration for a certain group of people was, “How can I make a buck on this?”

There are the hoarders who bought out toilet paper, sanitizer, and sanitary wipes, and will defend their rights and their stashes with their AK-15s, I suppose, but they are small change.

It’s the soulless element of the crew that has most of the money and power that cheeses me off and hurts my feelings. Those laughing, happy criminals already have everything, and the rest of us have so little, and they want that, too.

The entire world is walking through the valley of the shadow of death, and most people are being glorious to one another, including wealthy people who have their priorities in order. They’re not all weasels, with apologies to weasels.

As the numbers of the infected and dead keep going up, we know that nothing will ever be the same. We don’t know which dear ones we shall lose. We don’t know if we’ll lose our own lives. We don’t know how long we’ll be home bound, or how many waves the pandemic will have.

We do live in interesting times.