Allan G. Hunter's Blog, page 32

Diary 29

Diary 29

Thursday, April 16th

Today brought the somewhat bizarre news that right wing groups in Michigan (and other places) had mounted protests demanding to, quote, “End the Lockdown”. Many of these individuals were heavily armed, none seemed to have masks and very few had gloves. None were practicing social distancing.

I am not sure what to make of this. Truly. Do they think that just because they say so something becomes fact? I’m keenly aware that had most of these people been black there is a strong possibility that there would have been a shootout. But I saw only white faces and very few women.  Several were carrying Trump/Pence placards, at least in the press pictures. 

This seems to me to be a classic case of some folks not knowing what’s good for them.

With 658,000 confirmed severe cases and 32,000 deaths (an extra 3800 today alone) in the US so far, I wonder what it is that they, or I, am missing.

But I think there’s something to be learned here. I’d suggest that, in times of stress, people tend to do somewhat bizarre things. Carrying an AK-47 in a protest against a fact of nature (a virus) is not an entirely logical response. It’s like shaking your fist at storm clouds.

We must all watch out for things like this. We must watch for our own slightly odd responses, and ask what we are doing, what we’re expecting. It’s easy to condemn others, and yet their frustration is real. So is ours.

Diary 28

Wednesday, April 15th

Another marvelous Zoom call today with friends in England lifted my spirits and helped to give another perspective. One thing that emerged was that my friend who is a Montessori teacher for the kids of essential workers has noticed how the children are showing stress. Clearly, with both parents in high risk occupations these children are going to be surrounded by even more anxiety than the rest of us. Some are regressing (thumb sucking etc.) and some are becoming anxiously obsessive about hand washing, for example. The thing that struck my friend and her co-workers was that these children will grow up with the imprinting of these anxious times firmly embedded in their psyches. Like children who grew up in the Depression, or were evacuated in WW2, the scars may be deep.  And they will affect the children that they have, twenty years from now. We may be hungering for an end to our lockdown by next week (or whenever) but the current situation truly is one with long term consequences at a very personal level.

Healing our situation will, therefore, require much tact and much love from us all. I think I can rely on basic human goodness to supply that.

Meanwhile the numbers roll in: 2 million infected world-wide, 25,000 dead in the USA.  And yet even the numbers are in doubt. It seems that some agencies are not counting those who die in old age care facilities; others are not counting home deaths. And since there are no accurate testing kits we truly don’t know the size of the numbers. Those 2 million statistic, for example, represents only the confirmed cases, severe enough to be taken into hospitals. So it represents only the 20% who, according to the projections, will be hard hit.  This really isn’t math. This is guesswork from a government not remarkable for its veracity.

In other news, Trump delays the arrival of the relief checks because he wants his name printed on them. I doubt the electronic versions will show this, but still.  Why not have his portrait on them, too?

Diary 27

Tuesday, April 14th

Social distancing doesn’t seem to apply to those White House Press Rallies, I mean briefings, that grace our screens way too often. The reporters sit with their mandatory three seat separation, but the podium members do not observe any sort of healthy protocol. This struck me as emblematic of the entire problem: the ruling classes are not being affected by this lockdown. They are insulated from almost every normal activity, have the very best health care, they have ‘people’ to sanitize everything and so on. No toilet paper shortages there. No wonder the governing party is completely out of touch with what’s needed.

One wonders if they’ve always been that way.

Meanwhile Nature continues to take over. The wild turkeys stalk our streets, the rabbits hop around looking very innocent. This has a down side. I discovered that squirrels, or possibly rats, had decided to take up residence in the engine compartment of my now less-than-often-used Honda. It turns out that Honda, in their infinite wisdom, elected to create their electric cable coverings out of soy products. Rodents like this. I imagine garages like it also, because my local neighborhood one now stands to gain about $800 worth of repair work. Actually, this was one of the few garages available to me, as several others laid off their repair force some time ago, leaving just one person to sell gas (also a diminishing demand).

And once my repaired car comes home, when will I use it next? The squirrels don’t forget a good food source.

Interestingly, my auto insurer just wrote to offer a give-back, since so many people are not using their cars as much as they normally might. I suppose it’ll stop people canceling their insurance all together. Me, I’m going to put some gas stabilizer in the tank. Modern gas tends to go ‘off’ after about six weeks (The ethanol in it absorbs moisture, which engines don’t like), and I don’t want to have to worry about an expensive bit of machinery that I don’t, actually, use right now.

Diary 26

Monday, April 13th

It seems that the current situation is one that is rendered in numbers. Nearly 2 million Covid-19 cases; 22,000 deaths in the USA; the Stock Market falls, then rebounds hundreds of points, then falls; 16 million unemployed. I suppose that’s what happens when we simply cannot get ourselves to comprehend what it will all feel like, or when we just don’t know what our emotions are doing.

It was also a day of unusually bad weather, with very high winds. 60,000 people in western Mass lost power. And yet – what comes through to me is the extraordinary resilience of people. Sure, there’s fear swirling around us, but most people remain calm, somewhat resigned, and many are deeply thoughtful about how their lives were before all this. They’re also thinking about how life needs to be after all this is over.

Taking a walk by the river I noticed a blue heron. Looking closer I saw nine of them in total, perched in social-distance manner in a series of trees, fluffed up against the cold. The ancients often thought of herons as harbingers of change. My sense is that change is already here, and we’d be well advised to pay attention to what it may involve.

Diary 25

Sunday, April 12th (Easter)

Does anyone remember when shopping used to be sort of fun? Well, it isn’t now. The large supermarkets I used to favor for certain things (like fresh salad items) have turned into places of bumbling clueless customers, long lines and cleared shelves. Several different places, sampled on different days seem to bear this out.

The news seems to exist, now, in the obviously growing tension between our “president” and Dr. Fauci, who insists on telling the truth and talking sense after the daily bluster and obfuscations of the other. Fauci is too popular to fire – for now. 

We delivered an Easter basket to our grandchildren, but of course we had to stay six feet away. It was wonderful to see them – and very sad not to be able to hug them and play with them as we usually do. Still, I am grateful that they are all well, that we are, too, and that we have the connection we have.

Gratitude, in this instance, is always the answer. We are fortunate in what we have. May we all be so lucky.

Diary 24

Saturday, April 11th.

The US recorded 2108 deaths in one day, yesterday (Friday) from covid-19.
As far as I can tell none of these people are known to me. Yet they are not just nameless strangers. Whenever any one dies in this way, through the neglect of leaders or governments, or because of inequalities or failures of a system of which I am a part, I am affected, too. When any member of our society is disrespected, left unprotected, left to die needlessly, we are all being disrespected and abandoned. There is no ‘them’ and ‘us’.

We are all one.

In contrast to this I found myself gazing blankly at my computer, and I have discovered that I can make 84 words of three letters or more, using only the top deck of my keyboard – QWERTYUIOP – using each letter only once. This excludes foreign words and non-standard words like pro and trow.

Diary 23

Friday, April 10th

Staying in this strange space of social distancing and isolation causes me to notice certain things. The post office now, at last, has installed perspex barriers between the counter clerk and the public. My friend behind the counter looks relieved rather than deeply worried, but it’s not as if he’s happy. By rights he should have had that screen years ago, to help protect him from all the previous flu epidemics. 

Of the local shops one now has an interesting and ingenious wood tray on wheels arrangement. One approaches the cash, stands behind the new wood barrier, places one’s groceries on a wood tray that is then rolled towards the cash desk.  The owner then rings up the purchases, bags them, and rolls them back to you, six feet away.  No one is allowed to enter the shop without a mask. The staff all have masks and gloves.  Everyone seems confident and relaxed. My wife admired this, and said she felt the place was safer than most other places she’d shopped. It gave her confidence that the owners had thought about what to do and taken action.

Meanwhile I was in another shop buying milk and the owner there stood behind an unprotected till; he wore neither mask nor gloves.  I did not feel reassured. It seems to me that more and more the business of feeling safe, or safe-ish, is essential if we’re to keep our spirits up, if we’re to feel that we can beat this. In fact, any time we do something to push back against this virus we are sending ourselves a positive message, and that can only be good. I felt rather pleased I was wearing my home-made mask. Just because there aren’t any commercial ones available doesn’t mean I’m helpless. Morale matters, and helplessness erodes it.

And then it began to rain, then to sleet, and finally a bit of snow and hail descended. As I gazed out at this a huge boom announced the failure of our neighborhood’s electrical system. Well, we can always light the gas stove with a match and use it as heat tonight….

The solution was to get creative with dinner.  My wife is very good at this because we both realize how important it is to try to eat well, as healthily as we can, and have food that is interesting. At this time I cannot imagine anything more depressing than a shabby meal of pre-packaged junk. I imagine that the panic buying I saw earlier this month will have resulted in quite a lot of that, if my brief survey of my fellow-shoppers’ overloaded shopping carts was in any way representative. If we can, we must try to be good to ourselves. We do not have to think that we have to sit in a bunker, drinking tinned water and eating Army-ration beans.

On a different note, I’ve come to the end of Middlemarch, which was so utterly enjoyable that I had to ration myself for fear of racing to the end. Reading, when there’s no pressure, is a delicious luxury. I’d almost forgotten how much.

Then the electricity came back on.

Diary 22

Thursday, April 9th

We’ll start with the good news: Norway has decided to re-open kindergartens on April 20th and other schools a week later. Malls are already open, although borders remain very firmly closed, and there will be restrictions on public events until June 15th. Norway is, of course, a small country, with a spread-out population of 5.4 million – fewer than the number of people on Manhattan Island. Their death toll was less than 100. The other difference is that they implemented very strict procedures right from the start. I’m very happy for them, and rather sad for us, since our situation is very different – and will remain so for some time. Still, it does show that this virus can be contained and tamed, if only we take the right actions and stick to them.

Other good news is that the price of gas locally is down to $1.75. I still don’t have any desire to go anywhere.

Today, Thursday, was Passover and tomorrow will be Good Friday so this is a pretty good time to think about our place in the universe, about Spring and renewal. In both the Christian and the Jewish stories the renewal came at considerable human cost. The first born of Egypt on one hand, and the crucifixion of the Son of God. Perhaps the stories are telling us that in order for the new world to be born there has to be a breaking away, even a destruction of what was, until then, usual.

Because whatever our world will be like after all this has settled down, I doubt very much that it will be as it was before. Perhaps, as we watch Norway emerge from all this we can learn something.

Diary 21

Wednesday, April 8th

The good news today seems to be that the giant pandas in Hong Kong zoo, relieved not to have swarms of people gawping at them, have begun to do something the naturalists thought they’d never do, they’ve begun to mate. Hopes are high. It begs a series of questions about people and zoos, doesn’t it?  I mean, how keen would you be to mate if you were surrounded by hundreds of pandas with cameras watching your every flirt? 

This morning I witnessed a helicopter over the town, surveying something from on high.  We haven’t heard that sound for nearly a month.  We used to get a dozen a day, noisily monitoring the traffic snarls – of which, of course, there are now almost none.

Yesterday and today were spent doing spring-cleaning like activities. Sorting out the garden seemed like a healthful thing to do, as did chucking a bunch of stuff out of the basement. Robert Frost once said that making some sort of order out of something, like making a woodpile, was salutary at time when life felt out of any real control. I took his advice and cut down the first sections of a dead tree I’d been meaning to get to. The removal will help the other trees to grow, but received noisy disapproval from our resident squirrels and a posse of bluejays. You can’t keep everyone happy.

Fortunately my young neighbor came over and helped me with this task – at a suitable 6 foot distance.  He did most of the heavy work, for which my gratitude is immense.  Thanks a  million Phil!

I had a lovely zoom meeting with an old chum and his grown-up daughter in England. Old friends really are the best – they ‘get’ us in a way that is utterly delightful. It was no trouble at all to chat and laugh and have a wonderful conversation. The daughter works at a Montessori school, (still open) and I am rather worried about her exposure to this virus, I must say…..

Shortly after this my son-in-law came by with the grandchildren in his car. We stood 6 feet away and talked. Everyone just wanted to get out and hug each other – Ellie (5) loves to be lifted up and spun around – but we couldn’t do that. 

I wonder if we were too cautious.

I mention this because several people have contacted me, talking about rather wild, fear-based theories. Some have said that covid-19 is not real. Others that it’s all because of 5G. Some think they have ‘the cure’ for the virus. I do not know what to make of such theories. They may or may not have validity. But until I have more evidence, real concrete evidence, I cannot give myself over to alarmism. 

Fear is real. It’s a very useful human emotion that helps to alert us to possible threats. But it’s only an emotion; it’s only one type of information. It is not necessarily the whole picture, or even truth. Let us not be led by fear. Let us do what we can to help others and stay safe ourselves.

Diary 20

Tuesday, April 7th

Today came the news that Russo’s, our local grocery store, the one with the heaps of fresh veggies temptingly laid out for all the wonder at, has not only ceased deliveries but has ceased operating altogether. It can’t be for lack of custom, the place was mobbed last time we were there, everyone looking furtive in their masks. I think they simply decided that they couldn’t cope. Perhaps a staffer came down with covid-19. We may never know. Still, a major loss in this community.

On a Zoom call with a friend in England I was able to get a slightly different perspective on the general situation. They, too, were slow to react. In fact my chum reported that he’d had a jokey exchange with a friend of his when they’d almost shaken hands but chosen to do an elbow bump instead.  They went on to have a hilarious evening in The Rose and Crown. The friend returned to his home. Two days later he came down with severe covid-19.  That was a month ago.  He’s just got out of hospital. My friend was, and remains, fine.

What we discussed in our Zoom chat was what the shape of society might be when all this has settled down again. We agreed that the talents required for running a successful business are not the same as those needed to run a country. A business must make money, or it ceases to be. In contrast a country depends heavily upon creating and maintaining a culture, a way of being that is stable, compassionate, and serves the needs of the citizens. One might say that its task is to create peace. In England the shortfall of medical staff created a response in which half a million citizens volunteered to help at hospitals and care centers.  They are now being used as a major resource. I don’t know how sensible this is. I do know that it was a considerable out-pouring of care for others. The motive was not monetary.

Let’s put it this way: if we get rich but live in a society that increasingly does not care for others, I’m not convinced we’ve got a good deal.

Meanwhile I have to note that the Wisconsin elections were rendered all but impossible by the refusal to allow postal voting and by the closure of all but 5 polling stations in Milwaukee. In a time of corona virus, to have people waiting in lines for two hours and more is not sensible. It’s been called gross voter suppression. Yes.  I’d have to agree with that.