Bryce Moore's Blog, page 84
July 29, 2020
A Summary of Hydroxychloroquine Research
As I mentioned on Facebook, I was in an all day meeting yesterday, away from the interwebs. I emerged from said meeting to find the hydroxychloroquine debate raised from the dead on social media, with Twitter and Facebook feeds jam packed with articles flying from both sides, with people clamoring both for and against the drug yet again. In an effort to get on top of the debate, I took some time to look through the actual studies and see what’s been said, who said it, and why. And because I thought this might be helpful to some others, I’m presenting it here on the blog.
Before I get into that, a disclaimer that I think would be good for almost all of the people trying to insert themselves into this debate to remember: I am not a doctor. I am not an expert in this field. I can consume information and question its validity, and I can have a fair shot at piecing together unbiased sources and research to try to get to the bottom of things, but I lack the background to really be able to look at a scientific question like “is hydroxychloroquine effective” and be able to hope to answer it. That’s what we rely on other experts for.
And a second note about experts: as much as I might not like popularity contests in general, in science, it’s kind of the point. Science doesn’t work by finding the expert who agrees with the opinion you want to be true. It works by doing research, making findings, having people confirm that research with their own findings, and thus having the entire scientific community reach a general consensus around an issue. Yes, there will remain things in debate on the edges, but as a whole, scientific consensus gets us where we want to go, even if it might be more slowly than we’d like. Research takes time, or at least, good research does. You want to pay attention to how the studies were performed, how many subjects they involved, their rigor, etc.
I entered into the research for today’s issue with a simple question: “Is hydroxychloroquine an effective, safe treatment for COVID-19? If so, how widely can/should it be used?”
First, it’s good to check why the debate suddenly surged back to the forefront of the COVID discussion. From what I gather, it boils down to two articles/videos. The first is a video by Dr. Stella Immanuel and other doctors claiming hydroxychloroquine cures COVID and that taking it protects you from COVID. The second is an article in Newsweek from Dr. Harvey Risch, stating that when taken by high risk patients early in the disease, hydroxychloroquine is an effective treatment. (Immanuel makes some of the same disclaimers in her statement, but she pressed the issue further, implying there’s a “cure.”) Dr. Risch seems like a more solid source, judging from what I’ve read about Dr. Immanuel, but let’s set aside their histories for the moment and look specifically at the claims. Have more studies been done that prove what these doctors are saying?
Here’s a rundown of the studies I’ve found.
Date# of PatientsConclusionsLinkJuly 23667“Among patients hospitalized with mild-to-moderate Covid-19, the use of hydroxychloroquine, alone or with azithromycin, did not improve clinical status at 15 days as compared with standard care.”StudyJuly 16423“Hydroxychloroquine did not substantially reduce symptom severity in outpatients with early, mild COVID-19” (second study in Spain had similar results)StudyJuly 12,541“In this multi-hospital assessment, when controlling for COVID-19 risk factors, treatment with hydroxychloroquine alone and in combination with azithromycin was associated with reduction in COVID-19 associated mortality. Prospective trials are needed to examine this impact”StudyJuly 1FDA Review“A summary of the FDA review of safety issues with the use of hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine to treat hospitalized patients with COVID-19 is now available. This includes reports of serious heart rhythm problems and other safety issues, including blood and lymph system disorders, kidney injuries, and liver problems and failure.”ReviewJune 20500“A data and safety monitoring board (DSMB) met late Friday and determined that while there was no harm, the study drug was very unlikely to be beneficial to hospitalized patients with COVID-19.”ResultsJune 181,446“In this observational study involving patients with Covid-19 who had been admitted to the hospital, hydroxychloroquine administration was not associated with either a greatly lowered or an increased risk of the composite end point of intubation or death. Randomized, controlled trials of hydroxychloroquine in patients with Covid-19 are needed.”StudyJune 152,300“There was no significant difference between the number of people in each group who developed COVID-19”ReleaseJune 54,674“These data convincingly rule out any meaningful mortality benefit of hydroxychloroquine in
patients hospitalised with COVID-19. Full results will be made available as soon as possible”ReleaseJune 3821“After high-risk or moderate-risk exposure to Covid-19, hydroxychloroquine did not prevent illness compatible with Covid-19 or confirmed infection when used as postexposure prophylaxis within 4 days after exposure.”Study28 MayMeta-analysis“The results of efficacy and safety of HCQ in COVID-19, as obtained from the clinical studies, are not satisfactory, although many of these studies had major methodological limitations. Stronger evidence from well-designed robust randomized clinical trials is required before conclusively determining the role of HCQ in the treatment of COVID-19. Clinical prudence is required in advocating HCQ as a therapeutic armamentarium in COVID-19.”ReleaseMay 27Meta-analysis“These medications need to be widely available and promoted immediately for physicians to prescribe.” (There’s also a response to this analysis saying “We strongly think that there is no convincing evidence to support the claim made by Risch”, as well as a response to that response where Risch defends himself.)StudyMay 27Meta-analysis“Evidence on the benefits and harms of using hydroxychloroquine or chloroquine to treat COVID-19 is very weak and conflicting.”ReleaseMay 2296,032“Large Multinational Cohort Study Finds the Use of Macrolide Antibiotics, Hydroxychloroquine, or Chloroquine Is Not Associated with Better Outcomes but Is Associated with Increased Harms.” NOTE: This study was retracted by the Lancet because the researchers wouldn’t fully share their dataStudyMay 14150“Administration of hydroxychloroquine did not result in a significantly higher probability of negative conversion than standard of care alone in patients admitted to hospital with mainly persistent mild to moderate covid-19. Adverse events were higher in hydroxychloroquine recipients than in non-recipients.”StudyMay 111,438“Among patients hospitalized with COVID-19, treatment with hydroxychloroquine, azithromycin, or both was not associated with significantly lower in-hospital mortality.”StudyMay 5181“Hydroxychloroquine has received worldwide attention as a potential treatment for covid-19 because of positive results from small studies. However, the results of this study do not support its use in patients admitted to hospital with covid-19 who require oxygen.”StudyApril 23368“In this study, we found no evidence that use of hydroxychloroquine, either with or without azithromycin, reduced the risk of mechanical ventilation in patients hospitalized with Covid-19. An association of increased overall mortality was identified in patients treated with hydroxychloroquine alone. These findings highlight the importance of awaiting the results of ongoing prospective, randomized, controlled studies before widespread adoption of these drugs.”Study
After looking at all these different studies, the conclusion I reach is that more studies should be done, as suggested by the research. It does appear that if taken at lower doses, there’s a chance that hydroxychloroquine can have a positive impact. But the bottom line is that we just don’t know that from the science, and any doctor making claims to the contrary is being downright misleading, no matter how well-intended they might be. Hydroxychloroquine does not seem to be a cure.
As another side note, I find it interesting so many are looking to a drug for a cure while ignoring the obvious “wear a mask.” In Breitbart’s video (where Dr. Immanuel speaks), none of the doctors are wearing a mask. They’re not standing six feet apart. I suppose you could argue that’s because they’re just that confident that hydroxychloroquine has cured them, but I look at other root causes that might explain that a little more fully. “America’s Frontline Doctors,” as they call themselves, are funded by the Tea Party Patriots and actively speaking out against the lockdown measures. These are people with an axe to grind, not necessarily a country to save.
And here’s the kicker: we know exactly what we could do to stop this pandemic in America. It’s been done in many other countries around the world. This article sums it up well, but it boils down to having 6 weeks of real lockdown measures, stopping interstate travel, mandating masks, and quarantining cases aggressively. All the debate about miracle cures makes me think about someone running around the deck of a sinking boat, talking about experimental flotation devices, while a plug to the hole in the boat is sitting right next to them.
If a loved one caught COVID, what would I do? I’d certainly bring up hydroxychloroquine to see if it might be of some help or at least be worth a shot. The science certainly hasn’t said it harms people who take it at appropriate dose levels. But I’m also wearing a mask and following social distancing suggestions, because I don’t want loved ones to have to be in that situation. Every minute we sit around dithering about hydroxychloroquine, we’re not paying attention to the simple measures that can and should be taken to make us safe. Now.
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Like what you’ve read? Please consider supporting me on Patreon. Thanks to all my Patrons who support me! It only takes a minute or two, and then it’s automatic from there on out. I’ve posted the entirety of my book ICHABOD in installments, and I’m now putting up chapters from PAWN OF THE DEAD, another of my unreleased books. Where else are you going to get the undead and muppets all in the same YA package? Check it out.
If you’d rather not sign up for Patreon, you can also support the site by clicking the MEMORY THIEF Amazon link on the right of the page. That will take you to Amazon, where you can buy my books or anything else. During that visit, a portion of your purchase will go to me. It won’t cost you anything extra.
July 27, 2020
Dog Alert!
That’s right, pound puppies: we’re getting a dog. A golden retriever puppy, to be precise. We had long thought that if/when we got a dog, we’d get a shelter dog. When the pandemic hit, we began to consider getting one, but by the time we decided we actually wanted to go through with it and started looking around at shelters, pickings were much slimmer than they had been when I looked before. Yes, there were still some dogs available, but most of them were either fairly old or else had disclaimers that they needed to be in homes with older children or no children at all. While we were in that quandary, trying to figure out which way to go, a friend’s mother’s golden retriever had puppies . . .
The rest was history.
Or it will be history when we get the dog, at least. That’s scheduled to be on August 17th. We’ll be going to see the puppies in person tomorrow. The kids are very excited. Denisa and I are excited as well, even though we’d never really planned on getting a puppy. House breaking and chewing? It’ll be an adventure. But it’s been good to have something to look forward to, and it’s helped brighten up the prospects for our kids, as well.
Last week, we took two hours to determine a name. We considered many, and it was difficult to come up with one that every member of the family approved of. I wanted it to be pop-culture-related, and I had a stipulation that it had to somehow be funny. My suggestions of Chewbarka and Sir Barks A Lot were vetoed, but surprisingly, Ferris Drooler went through and was approved after just a bit of debate. We’ll call him Ferris for short, of course, but it’s good for a dog to have a full name. How else is he going to know when he’s in a lot of trouble?
Yesterday we had another planning session, figuring out all the things we needed to look into to prepare for the arrival of the dog. Where will he sleep? What will he eat? Where will we take him to the vet? How about grooming? What equipment do we need to get for him? How will we train him? Assignments have been made, and we’ll reconvene next week to see how progress is going.
I’ve known a few Golden Retrievers in my life, and I’m looking forward to having one join our family. (I’ve always wanted a really big dog. A Newfoundland or a Bermese Mountain Dog. But a Golden Retriever is at least up there in size.)
If you have any puppy or dog related advice (especially around vets and groomers in the area), I’d love to hear it. And don’t worry: there will be (many) pictures incoming . . .
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Like what you’ve read? Please consider supporting me on Patreon. Thanks to all my Patrons who support me! It only takes a minute or two, and then it’s automatic from there on out. I’ve posted the entirety of my book ICHABOD in installments, and I’m now putting up chapters from PAWN OF THE DEAD, another of my unreleased books. Where else are you going to get the undead and muppets all in the same YA package? Check it out.
If you’d rather not sign up for Patreon, you can also support the site by clicking the MEMORY THIEF Amazon link on the right of the page. That will take you to Amazon, where you can buy my books or anything else. During that visit, a portion of your purchase will go to me. It won’t cost you anything extra.
July 24, 2020
Stress Eating My Way through the Pandemic
It’s been a while since I did an accountability update on my weight. Probably because it was heading in the wrong direction, and I didn’t want to face that. With all the uncertainty in my life, I turned back to my sugar-inhaling ways. I’d still been following me diet about half the time, which meant I wasn’t exactly ballooning my way back to overweight, but I was . . . making slow and steady progress in that direction.
Last Saturday, I decided enough was enough. I made a small goal to stick to my diet strictly for at least 7 days: Sunday through Saturday. I was 192.8 on Sunday morning when I began. This morning, I was down to 189.8, which is still definitely higher than I’d like it to be, but I’m back to moving in the right direction. (195 is the “magic” weight limit that pushes me into the “overweight” category, which I know is fairly arbitrary, but it’s a line I’m really set on not going back over.)
The week has been difficult. I can definitely tell that I was using food to handle my stress levels, since there were multiple times I was sitting at work, trying to get through a problem, and I found myself standing up to head for the fridge. I sat back down each time, but I was grateful for the very specific, reachable goal of a one week diet.
Now that I’m close to the end of it, will I extend it? I believe so. Overeating takes care of short term stress, but it adds long term stress to my equation. I’ve also always noticed that when I’m eating less, I feel better. I feel hungrier, of course, but I feel more clear-headed, and I like that. I’m still exercising 5 days a week, and I feel back on track for now. As long as Denisa doesn’t make homemade pizza, I should be in the clear . . .
(After the first week or two, I might give myself permission to have a cheat night a week or something like that. We’ll see.)
Anyway. If this is something you’re struggling with, I can recommend a short commitment that might help bridge the gap from where you are now to where you want to be. It’s a proof of concept goal that can then be extended. If I were really smart, I’d add some sort of Scooby Snack incentive to the deal, but I don’t know what I want enough to use at motivation. We shall see.
Have a great weekend, everyone. See you on Monday!
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Like what you’ve read? Please consider supporting me on Patreon. Thanks to all my Patrons who support me! It only takes a minute or two, and then it’s automatic from there on out. I’ve posted the entirety of my book ICHABOD in installments, and I’m now putting up chapters from PAWN OF THE DEAD, another of my unreleased books. Where else are you going to get the undead and muppets all in the same YA package? Check it out.
If you’d rather not sign up for Patreon, you can also support the site by clicking the MEMORY THIEF Amazon link on the right of the page. That will take you to Amazon, where you can buy my books or anything else. During that visit, a portion of your purchase will go to me. It won’t cost you anything extra.
July 23, 2020
Now I REALLY Don’t Know Who You Are
I’ve written before about how I traditionally struggle with remembering what people look like. If we’ve only met a couple of times, or if it’s been a while since we last met, then chances are I draw a complete blank when I try to picture you. Like I said before: it’s not you. It’s me.
But now that everyone’s walking around masked, I’ve discovered that tendency has gotten much, much worse. It doesn’t help that I’m a fairly public person. I blog every day, and I’ve held leadership roles locally and across the state, both at work and at church. So there are a lot of people out there who know who I am (relatively speaking), and whom I might run across throughout the course of a day. (Back in pre-pandemic days, of course.)
The few times I’ve gone out in public over the last bit, there have been people who greeted me by name. People who I honestly had no idea who they were. Usually the way I handle this is to smile and pretend I know them. When I’m masked, they can’t tell I’m smiling, so instead they probably are treated to a quizzical expression and a general “Hi!” that’s as friendly as I can make it.
I know this isn’t a big deal, but I do feel bad about it. I don’t know of anything I can do to change it, though. On the plus side, when I’m in Zoom meetings, I don’t struggle with this, because people typically have their name right on their screen, so I can just read the name and remember. Maybe one day I’ll get AR glasses that will pull up everyone’s name as I walk down the street. I don’t know if that sounds like a good idea or creepy. Probably both.
While I’m on the subject of masks, I also discovered that I rely more than I thought I did on seeing people’s lips move when they talk. There have been a couple of conversations I’ve tried to have in person, and those masks make me feel hard of hearing. I know the sound isn’t getting muffled. (Not enough that it should make a difference), but it’s still a struggle to understand what the other person is saying.
So. Moral of the story? If you see me in public, remember to remind me who you are and to TALK LOUDLY SO I CAN UNDERSTAND YOU. Just get me a cane and a spot of lawn to defend, and my Grumpy Old Man persona will be complete.
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Like what you’ve read? Please consider supporting me on Patreon. Thanks to all my Patrons who support me! It only takes a minute or two, and then it’s automatic from there on out. I’ve posted the entirety of my book ICHABOD in installments, and I’m now putting up chapters from PAWN OF THE DEAD, another of my unreleased books. Where else are you going to get the undead and muppets all in the same YA package? Check it out.
If you’d rather not sign up for Patreon, you can also support the site by clicking the MEMORY THIEF Amazon link on the right of the page. That will take you to Amazon, where you can buy my books or anything else. During that visit, a portion of your purchase will go to me. It won’t cost you anything extra.
July 22, 2020
Comfort Movie Review: Pirates of Penzance
There are a few movies out there that, to me, are pure classics, despite the fact that I recognize they might not resonate with other people nearly as well. It’s sort of like how sometimes I would honestly rather eat a bowl of Cocoa Puffs than a nice dinner out in an expensive restaurant. (More times than I should probably admit.) A fine cooked meal is fine and all, but sometimes I just want the chocolately milky crunchiness of that bowl full of cereal.
Pirates of Penzance is like that, but on film. Actually, that doesn’t really do justice to Pirates. For one thing, Cocoa Puffs weren’t made in 1879, and they haven’t stood the test of time for that huge time span. For another, Cocoa Puffs can’t really be analyzed beyond “don’t let then get too soggy.” Pirates is musically complex and has a pretty high expectation from its audience. (I would recommend only watching it with subtitles on, if you want to get the full experience.)
Written by the famed Gilbert & Sullivan team back in the 1800s, and one of their best known works, the film adapts the Broadway production from 1983, complete with almost all of the original cast. (Angela Lansbury was brought in to play Ruth, and she wasn’t from the stage production.) It’s helmed by Kevin Kline, who does such a smashing performance as the Pirate King that it carries the whole production. The movie is this strange amalgamation between a movie set and a stage set. Everything is clearly fake, but well made and consistent with its own sort of style. And somehow, it all works, mainly because the production is so full of campy fun, willing to make fun of itself and throw in physical humor to mix in with the word play of the book.
I saw Pirates of Penzance on the stage, but I can’t for the life of me remember where. I don’t know if it was on Broadway or if it was a touring company or what. I only know it was a long time ago. Long enough that my memory of it is pretty clouded, but it’s stuck with me since, and I’ve seen the Kline version many times. I will happily rewatch it when I’m feeling down. I love the music and humor of it all. And again–there’s something so spot on for me with Kevin Kline. The way he throws himself into the film and seems to be having such a good time throughout it. He won a Tony in 1981 for Best Actor in a Musical for the same role, so it makes sense. It would have been a blast to see him do it live.
Last night, I showed it to the kids, who also really enjoyed it. They were impressed that something so old could still be funny now. I’m not sure how much of that is due to Gilbert & Sullivan, and how much is from the production inserting extra touches of humor. In many ways, it’s like a good Shakespeare production. When they’re done right, the dated language just sort of fades away until you don’t even notice it anymore.
In any case, I was glad to see how much it still works for me. It’s a very Bryce movie, though I realize that might mean it’s not for everyone. The best news is that you don’t have to take my word for it. You can watch the entire thing on YouTube right this second for free. Or if you’re too lazy to look it up there, you can watch it right . . . here:
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Like what you’ve read? Please consider supporting me on Patreon. Thanks to all my Patrons who support me! It only takes a minute or two, and then it’s automatic from there on out. I’ve posted the entirety of my book ICHABOD in installments, and I’m now putting up chapters from PAWN OF THE DEAD, another of my unreleased books. Where else are you going to get the undead and muppets all in the same YA package? Check it out.
If you’d rather not sign up for Patreon, you can also support the site by clicking the MEMORY THIEF Amazon link on the right of the page. That will take you to Amazon, where you can buy my books or anything else. During that visit, a portion of your purchase will go to me. It won’t cost you anything extra.
July 21, 2020
Using Yesterday’s Arguments, Today!
A general observation post for you today. As I’ve watched some of the political debates being fought in the brutal modern-day trench warfare that is Facebook and Twitter these days, I’ve noticed a tendency toward using convenient statistics and science. This is nothing new. (100% of the people I polled for this post agreed with me, after all.) But a more disturbing trend is the approach where people will use outdated arguments to “prove” something, even though science has long since discredited those arguments.
A not-quite-so-current example of this would be centered around climate change. I feel like many people made their minds up around a decade ago that climate change was bogus. At the time, science had already strongly indicated that climate change was being caused by humans, but there was at least more debate around the subject, scientifically, than there is now. And so that problem was “solved” in some minds. Now, a decade later, they still cling to those past conclusions, despite the fact that we’ve got ten more years of studies and data. To me, trying to deny climate change now is like trying to insist the Boston Red Sox still haven’t won a World Series since 1918. I might wish that weren’t the case, and there might be a long string of data that supports it, historically, but that data has been rendered out of date due to evidence from the past 20 years.
For a more recent example, all you have to do is throw a dart pretty much anywhere in the vicinity of a COVID debate. How deadly is it? Do you need to wear a mask? Will there be a cure anytime soon? How contagious is it?
The problem with all of these issues is that the science on them hasn’t just been changing over years, it’s been changing over weeks. Over days, sometimes. And while I can try to sympathize with people who don’t handle change well (especially not under such trying circumstances), I have little patience for people who are willfully ignorant or who choose to ignore data to try and make their personal argument stronger.
Yes, experts waffled at first over whether or not masks were helpful for this disease. But the waffling is going away, as the scientific studies mount that masks really do help. You might not like that, but when even Donald Trump starts changing his tune, saying masks are now “patriotic,” I wonder how long it will be before people finally (finally!) start just wearing masks and moving on with their lives.
In the early days of COVID, several shared a graphic online, comparing COVID deaths to other various deaths. At the time, I could see how the data might make it seem to some that the world was overreacting to COVID. After all, as of March 25th, COVID had killed 21,297 people worldwide. Compare that to other deaths by that point: the seasonal flu (113,034), malaria (228,095), traffic fatalities (313,903) or HIV/AIDS (390,908). Why were we shutting the world down?
Well . . . none of those people have posted an updated chart, so I thought I’d go in and check how it’s looking now, four months later. As of today, COVID has killed 615,735 people worldwide. The seasonal flu (270,594), malaria (544,171), traffic fatalities (748,892), and HIV/AIDS (932,615). So it’s blown by the seasonal flu and malaria, and it’s only a matter of time before it passes the others as well, if we keep going the way we’re going. And that’s with a global shutdown. It doesn’t take a whiz kid to picture what it would have looked like if the shutdown hadn’t happened. Except maybe it does, because many people are still trying to compare COVID to the flu. They attack other data. The fatality rate. Or the recovery rate. Or they say too many deaths are being counted as COVID-related, and never mind that the same approach is used to tabulate seasonal flu deaths.
No matter how badly people might want to wish this virus was just like any number of other things, and that it’s far less worrisome than it is, the facts just don’t play that out. But if there’s one thing the past months have taught me, it’s the willingness of many to ignore facts if they’re inconvenient.
So I guess I’ll go with that approach. Just look at how awful the Red Sox are. They haven’t won a World Series since World War I! If we all just agree to believe that, it makes it magically true. Right?
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Like what you’ve read? Please consider supporting me on Patreon. Thanks to all my Patrons who support me! It only takes a minute or two, and then it’s automatic from there on out. I’ve posted the entirety of my book ICHABOD in installments, and I’m now putting up chapters from PAWN OF THE DEAD, another of my unreleased books. Where else are you going to get the undead and muppets all in the same YA package? Check it out.
If you’d rather not sign up for Patreon, you can also support the site by clicking the MEMORY THIEF Amazon link on the right of the page. That will take you to Amazon, where you can buy my books or anything else. During that visit, a portion of your purchase will go to me. It won’t cost you anything extra.
July 20, 2020
Faith in the Time of COVID
As I mentioned last week, I had the chance to head back to in-person church on Sunday. It was capped at 25 people, we all had masks on, and sanitizer abounded. Did I feel safe? Yes. Did it feel normal? Not at all. Was it good to be back? I’m honestly not sure. It felt so different. But I think it was an important first step.
In any case, here’s the talk I delivered yesterday. (I discovered that I breathe more when I’m nervous, and when I breathe more with a mask on, my glasses fog up more, which makes it harder to read my talk. Unforeseen problems. I think I need a different mask.)
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Before 2020, I never really took much time to consider what “essential services” existed in my life. If you’d asked me back then, I probably would have listed things like electricity and groceries. Roads in good repair. Toilet paper wouldn’t have even occurred to me. In a post-COVID-19 world (or at least a world still dealing with it and hopefully getting to ‘post’ eventually), it’s been surprising to see the number of services that have been listed as essential. Services a 2019 version of me would have laughed at. Different countries made different decisions. France, for example, kept its chocolate, cheese, wine, and pastry shops open. Australia made sure its liquor and toy stores would keep running, while here in America, states watched out for gun and marijuana stores, not to mention the WWE.
If nothing else, the pandemic has taught me that we all have different priorities, and what’s considered essential to one person is considered frivolous to others. It shouldn’t have surprised me, then, to have many people upset that churches were being shuttered in the middle of all of this chaos. Somehow, however, it did. Some of this is likely due to the fact that my personal transition from a normal religious life to a socially distant one went fairly smoothly. Our church ended worldwide meetings fairly early in the pandemic, and we already had an extensive curriculum to continue church lessons at home. Not all faiths had that same luxury.
For many people, their Sunday worship services are one of the primary ways they practice their religion. Removing that ability while keeping marijuana stores open has to sting more than a little, especially when by doing so, the government is declaring religion unessential. But at the same time, many of the trappings of church service were difficult to do in a socially distant manner. Just look at how we’re resuming them now. There’s a fifth of the people here who would normally be here. No handshakes. No singing. Lots of masks and a whole lot of sanitizer. Gearing up to go to church today brought whole new meaning to the phrase “putting on the armor of God.”
It was interesting to me, then, that this week’s Come Follow Me lesson focused on the Zoramites, a group I think illustrates both sides of this situation. On the one hand, you had the rich Zoramites who built a tower from which to worship. Once a week, they would all gather and offer up prayers before returning home and forgetting God completely until it was time for church again the next week. In a pre-COVID world, how many of us fell into this category? How much of an actual impact did our religion have on us during the week, compared to the amount it had on us on Sunday?
And then you had the poor among them, who were cast out from these religious practices. They came to Alma and asked him, “Behold, what shall these my brethren do, for they are despised of all men because of their poverty, yea, and more especially by our priests; for they have cast us out of our synagogues which we have labored abundantly to build with our own hands; and they have cast us out because of our exceeding poverty; and we have no place to worship our God; and behold, what shall we do?” For the past four months, our churches have been shuttered. We have had no place to worship our God. So Alma’s response to this group is particularly applicable:
10 Behold I say unto you, do ye suppose that ye cannot worship God save it be in your synagogues only?
11 And moreover, I would ask, do ye suppose that ye must not worship God only once in a week?
12 I say unto you, it is well that ye are cast out of your synagogues, that ye may be humble, and that ye may learn wisdom; for it is necessary that ye should learn wisdom; for it is because that ye are cast out, that ye are despised of your brethren because of your exceeding poverty, that ye are brought to a lowliness of heart; for ye are necessarily brought to be humble.
A time of crisis can do many things for a person. It can make someone panic or rage. It can bring a people closer together or split them further apart. The last nationwide panic I lived through was September 11th. I remember marveling in the days after those awful attacks how unified our country had become. Who else remembers the members of Congress standing on the steps singing God Bless America that evening? That sort of national unity is missing today. Granted, the thought of a large group gathering anywhere elbow to elbow is a little disconcerting right now, but I can’t picture any Congressional meeting today resulting in such a heartwarming conclusion. Maybe the WWE could arrange something.
It’s telling to me that Alma focuses on how the deprivation of a place of worship made these Zoramites more humble. Humility is a trait that could go a long way to helping us through the days, weeks, and months ahead. It’s the ability to recognize we are not all experts, and that taking advice from those with more knowledge than us is a strength, not a weakness. I feel that one of Christ’s defining characteristics was his humility. He went about preaching and practicing the Gospel without the need to continually draw attention to himself. I still see humility being exercised on a local level, but on the national stage, it goes unnoticed, likely because it’s not the sort of thing that sells papers or attracts eyeballs. But its opposite is much easier to find: pride.
In 1989, President Ezra Taft Benson gave a fantastic talk on the dangers of pride. What it is, why it is so evil, and how to avoid it. If you haven’t read it lately, I encourage you to revisit it, especially in light of today’s environments. Here are a few quotes that stood out to me:
“The central feature of pride is enmity—enmity toward God and enmity toward our fellowmen. Enmity means “hatred toward, hostility to, or a state of opposition.” It is the power by which Satan wishes to reign over us. Pride is essentially competitive in nature. We pit our will against God’s. When we direct our pride toward God, it is in the spirit of “my will and not thine be done.”’
“The proud make every man their adversary by pitting their intellects, opinions, works, wealth, talents, or any other worldly measuring device against others. In the words of C. S. Lewis: “Pride gets no pleasure out of having something, only out of having more of it than the next man. … It is the comparison that makes you proud: the pleasure of being above the rest. Once the element of competition has gone, pride has gone.”’
“Another face of pride is contention. Arguments, fights, unrighteous dominion, generation gaps, divorces, spouse abuse, riots, and disturbances all fall into this category of pride. Contention in our families drives the Spirit of the Lord away. It also drives many of our family members away. Contention ranges from a hostile spoken word to worldwide conflicts. The scriptures tell us that “only by pride cometh contention.”’
If we could, as a people and a world, lower the emphasis placed on personal and national pride, a global pandemic would be much easier to overcome, though it would not solve all our problems.
Non-believers often ask the faithful for an explanation. If God is so great, how can He allow bad things to happen to good people? During a pandemic, why would God let the religious suffer? I read stories of examples of congregations who met before quarantine was called. Church choirs that acted as superspreaders of the disease, killing members in the process. I read of other examples during the quarantine. People who met in spite of the ban, believing their faith would protect them from the disease. That did not turn out to be true. If God loves his children and wants them to come unto Him, why wouldn’t He make sure they could do that without catching COVID? Shouldn’t an all powerful being be capable of that?
The answer, to me, lies in another story from the Book of Mormon. At one point, there are two different groups of people living in bondage to the Lamanites: the People of Limhi, and the People of Alma. Both are longing to be free, and both take very different paths to freedom. The People of Limhi faced their trial without faith. They sent their men against the Lamanites three different times, losing each battle. Their time of captivity was difficult to say the least.
The People of Alma, on the other hand, faced their captivity with faith. Instead of trying to rely on their own strength, they prayed about what to do. In response to those prayers, they received comfort and guidance. Mosiah 24:13-14: “And it came to pass that the voice of the Lord came to them in their afflictions, saying: Lift up your heads and be of good comfort, for I know of the covenant which ye have made unto me; and I will covenant with my people and deliver them out of bondage.
14 And I will also ease the burdens which are put upon your shoulders, that even you cannot feel them upon your backs, even while you are in bondage; and this will I do that ye may stand as witnesses for me hereafter, and that ye may know of a surety that I, the Lord God, do visit my people in their afflictions.”
So there you have it: two examples of people dealing with the same problems. One with faith, and one without. It’s important to remember the ones with faith didn’t have those problems magically removed. Rather, their capacity for dealing with those problems was increased. They were comforted, and they had hope. Our faith isn’t some cheat code to life that lets us escape social distancing and pandemics. But it can certainly help us handle the fallout from them.
That said, I feel non-believers often look at religion as a band aid. A carrot dangled in front of the unhappy masses that tells them things will get better once this life has been endured. One of the teachings I love most about our religion is that this life isn’t supposed to be a burden. Yes, it’s filled with difficult times and situations. But “men are that they might have joy.” Religion isn’t here to help us make sense of things with a casual “it will all get better after this is over.” It’s here to help us make things better now. Today. Even in the middle of social distancing, pandemics, and political unrest.
So how has my religion helped me in the last four months? One major way it has helped is by providing guidance on how I should handle the situations as they arrive. To me, the current debate between personal freedoms and the safety of others has a pretty simple solution: “Love thy neighbor as thyself.” If nothing else, wearing a mask is a way for me to show others I care about them and the health of our society. Honestly, I see myself wearing a mask much more often in the future. I always looked at mask wearing cultures as somehow strange. Who would want to go around wearing a mask all the time? Now my views have changed. It’s not strange. It’s considerate.
I wrote on my blog earlier during the pandemic about how masks are the modern equivalent of Moses’ brazen serpent. Growing up, I learned in church all about Moses and the brazen serpent. If you don’t know about the story, the quick overview is that when the Israelites were complaining in the wilderness, poisonous snakes showed up, killing a bunch of them. Moses lifted up a bronze serpent on a pole, telling the people that if they’d look at the serpent, they wouldn’t die from the snake bites. This is referenced again in the Book of Mormon (1 Nephi 17:41), where it says “the labor which they had to perform was to look; and because of the simpleness of the way, or the easiness of it, there were many who perished.”
I never got the point of that story. If I was feeling sick, and someone told me all I had to do to feel better was to look at a bronze serpent, wouldn’t I at least give it a shot? I mean, we’re talking poisonous snakes here. I’d look at a bronze elephant if it gave me snake immunity. And yet there were the Israelites, not looking and choosing to die instead.
The pandemic has shown me I had overestimated humanity’s willingness to do simple things to avoid bad things. Today, we’re told that if we would all just start wearing masks, COVID-19 would essentially wither away and die. It wouldn’t spread fast enough to keep going. True, this means a lot of us would need to wear a mask even when we aren’t sick (or don’t feel sick), but if all of us put on a mask (even if just 70% of us put on a mask, according to some studies!) we could go back to the life we all remember in February.
I have often thought about how stories that seem so clear cut are much thornier in practice. We get used to reading those stories with the benefit of knowing what the right answer was. When it comes time for us to apply those stories in our lives, the decisions somehow get tangled.
Like the People of Alma, my faith has helped me find a purpose in the problems. It didn’t shield me from the effects, but it helped me have an idea how best to handle those effects, and the constant ability to pray for support and guidance was always useful to me. The shift to studying the Gospel with my family each week felt refreshing. I didn’t have to worry about lessons that went awry, or awkward comments that needed to be handled or explained. I knew exactly what my kids were receiving for instruction, and it was much easier for us to have frequent discussions about how the Gospel can be applied in our lives.
Back when they first announced the shift to two hour church, I looked at the home study program that was introduced to take its place as a nice thought, but not the real meat of the matter. We were losing a whole hour of church! Every week! There was much rejoicing in the Cundick household. But in hindsight, it seems clear to me the move wasn’t made because God wanted to gift me with an hour of my life back each week. The real reason–or at least one reason–was that a global pandemic was on the horizon, unknown to any of us, and having a home-centered approach to practicing religion would prove to be invaluable. True, I suppose some non-believers would call that coincidental. We’ll have to agree to disagree on that point.
The longer this home-centered church arrangement has progressed, however, the more concerned I’ve become for the health of the church as a whole. When the time comes for us all to transition back to weekly meetings, what portion of our membership will decide those meetings didn’t seem that necessary after all? There’s a reason we’re commanded to gather together oft. I’ve had discussions with members over the years, and we’ve bemoaned the fact that sometimes church can be–I’m going to be blunt here–boring. Boring with a capital B. And I know some of that is my own fault for not being spiritually prepared enough over the week, but I also know that not all talks and lessons apply equally to all types of members. A talk that might really resonate with me might leave the person in the pew next to me snoring in their seat. But there’s something in that mixture–forcing yourself to interact with others and wrestle with the same problems and concepts–that somehow helps everyone involved strengthen their faith. When we’re asked to do things outside our comfort zone or teach things we might not fully understand, that pushes us to grow.
Being around other people who share the same overarching goal of returning to live with God helps us remember our own imperfections. Perhaps one of the reasons things are becoming more and more splintered across the country is for the very reason that so much of our interaction has shifted from the watercooler and public square over to Facebook or Twitter.
We’re not through this pandemic yet. Or rather, it’s not through with us yet. Still, I’m glad to be back in church in at least some form. How has religion helped me through the pandemic? It’s helped me in the same way an answer key helped me learn math. I could struggle through the problems as they came up, but check at the back of the book now and then to make sure I was still on track. Or if you’re more of a humanities than a math person, religion during this time has been my Rosetta Stone, able to give meaning and understanding to things that would otherwise be incomprehensible.
Religion is an essential service to me. I’m grateful I can practice it regardless of where I am or whom I’m with, but I’m also cognizant of the fact that it’s a thing that needs to be a shared experience to be properly understood. I know faith is something that can be disparaged and misunderstood by many, but once again, it’s been one of the few things keeping me sane and focused in these troubling times, and I know it can do that for everyone. I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
July 17, 2020
Netflix Series Review: Dark Season 1
Denisa and I finished the first season of another series last night: Dark. The best way I can describe it is “A more adult, German version of Stranger Things.” It has a tremendous learning curve involved in watching it, but if you can get over that, I’ve found it to be one of the best hard science fiction shows I’ve ever watched.
The premise is very timey wimey. In a small German town in the present day, someone has been abducting children. This may or may not have something to do with another series of abductions 33 years ago. Worse yet, bodies begin to be found, but not necessarily the bodies of the children who went missing . . .
I don’t want to say too much about the premise, because a lot of the fun of the series is figuring out the connections and who’s doing what where when and why. Denisa and I had to pause the show multiple times an episode to remind ourselves who the person was we were following at the moment, and why they were doing what they were doing. Under normal circumstances, that would definitely be a problem for a television show, but Dark is that sort of show. It would be like critiquing a crossword puzzle for having clues that were tricky to understand. This show is very much a puzzle, and (better yet) it’s a puzzle that fits together extraordinarily well. (I can’t imagine how much effort went into getting all the pieces hashed out properly ahead of time on the page.)
Obviously this is going to appeal to some people more than others. For me, it was a great way to delve into a show and try to figure out the mysteries. We guessed some of them ahead of time, and some were complete surprises. I’m really looking forward to getting into the second season soon. (There are three seasons total at the moment. I can’t speak for how good the other two are, but the first works well as one frustratingly whole narrative, with a cliffhanger at the end. Because of course.)
What might cause you to not watch the show, if it’s intrigued you so far? It’s TV-MA, but there’s not really a lot of blood, and the profanity is actually much worse in English than in German (I found some of the translations to be odd that way), but even then it’s hardly profanity-laced. There are a couple of steamy scenes, but they’re short and you can see them from a ways off, and you don’t really miss anything by skipping them. (Warning that the most graphic is in the first episode.) That said, this is definitely not an HBO TV-MA.
Anyway. If that sounds intriguing to you, I really encourage you to check it out. I’d give it an 8.5/10. It’s the #56 ranked show on IMDB at the moment, so I’m clearly not alone in my assessment. Let me know what you think!
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Like what you’ve read? Please consider supporting me on Patreon. Thanks to all my Patrons who support me! It only takes a minute or two, and then it’s automatic from there on out. I’ve posted the entirety of my book ICHABOD in installments, and I’m now putting up chapters from PAWN OF THE DEAD, another of my unreleased books. Where else are you going to get the undead and muppets all in the same YA package? Check it out.
If you’d rather not sign up for Patreon, you can also support the site by clicking the MEMORY THIEF Amazon link on the right of the page. That will take you to Amazon, where you can buy my books or anything else. During that visit, a portion of your purchase will go to me. It won’t cost you anything extra.
July 16, 2020
Time for a Trim
Back when this quarantine began, I wrote a post about how I’d decided not to trim my beard until it was over. Of course, that was an easier post to write when I didn’t really think we’d be going much past . . . June? Surely by the Fourth of July, we’d be back in action. But the days turned to weeks, and those turned to months.
And my beard only got longer.
The whole time I’ve had a beard (more than 15 years at this point), I’ve often thought it would be cool to have a long beard. What would I look like? How would it feel? I mean, if I like a short beard, wouldn’t even more of it be better?
I can now say without reservation that Bryces don’t like long beards. Period. I would have trimmed my beard two months ago if it hadn’t been for that goal of not trimming until I’m back in public. But I’m very goal-oriented, and so I stuck with it.
What don’t I like about long beards? They’re work. A huge selling point for my beard is that I don’t have to think about it, typically. I wake up and don’t need to shave. Don’t need to do anything with it. It’s just there. With a long beard, you have to brush it. It’s constantly getting in the way. And for me at least, it’s just plain enormous. If I could make money growing hair, I would be making a whole lot of money. I have a ton of it, and my beard is very thick. As it got bigger, it spread out more as well.
Bottom line? It began to really bug me. I didn’t like how it looked or how I looked with it. And I began to long for the day when I could trim it back. It was also a constant reminder to me of the mess we’re in with COVID right now. Goals are one thing, but mental health is important too.
As I mentioned last week, I went to a small get together with friends. That didn’t seem to be “public” enough to warrant trimming the beard. However, this week, I’ve been asked to give a talk in church. In person. Now, this will be under very controlled circumstances. No more than 25 people in the building, let alone the room. The room can easily hold 250 people. Everyone will be masked. There won’t be any singing. No handshakes.
But it will be “public.”
And so yesterday to prepare for the talk, I finally trimmed my beard again. I think the last time I trimmed it was before Christmas, so it was about 7 months long, for reference. I can’t imagine me wanting to let it go past 5 months again. To those of you with long beards, my hat’s off. I don’t know how you do it. I’m a much happier Bryce today than I was yesterday.
[image error]Before
[image error]And after
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Like what you’ve read? Please consider supporting me on Patreon. Thanks to all my Patrons who support me! It only takes a minute or two, and then it’s automatic from there on out. I’ve posted the entirety of my book ICHABOD in installments, and I’m now putting up chapters from PAWN OF THE DEAD, another of my unreleased books. Where else are you going to get the undead and muppets all in the same YA package? Check it out.
If you’d rather not sign up for Patreon, you can also support the site by clicking the MEMORY THIEF Amazon link on the right of the page. That will take you to Amazon, where you can buy my books or anything else. During that visit, a portion of your purchase will go to me. It won’t cost you anything extra.
July 15, 2020
Voting in the Time of COVID
First off, I’ll lead by saying the school budget passed yesterday by a vote of 2,454 in favor to 1,917 against. (All of the things I voted for yesterday passed easily, as a matter of fact. Huzzah!) And as is often the case, the typical commentators on our local online paper have shown up to bemoan the fact that the budget passed and accuse teachers of rigging the vote.
(Side note: These same budget hawks clamor and rattle their cages on each and every article about the school budget that gets posted on the site. It’s tiresome to hear the same arguments year after year, though I’m sure it’s tiresome for them to have their opinion voted down every year as well. It’s particularly discouraging to see how little actual debate they want to engage in. They’ve made up their minds, and those minds will not be changed. That’s something that’s happening across the country these days. I feel like many staunch Republicans have just decided to ignore any and all evidence that shows their positions might be misguided and their opinions flawed, choosing instead to focus on any shortcomings the Democrats might have, instead. It’s the same trend that makes it so that they dismiss the Black Lives Matter movement as full of cop killers and looters, but then turn around and say the police are wrongly maligned just because of a few “bad apples.” But this side note is getting very non-side-notey now, so I’ll stop.)
I’m relieved the budget passed, of course, but I was even more impressed with the voting process in my town yesterday. Heading into it, I was concerned it would be chaotic, or that there would be a big deal made about masks or no masks. Instead, Denisa and I got there around 11:20. There was no line, but 6 feet intervals were marked on the ground, in case a line formed. Someone was there at the door to ensure no more than 25 people were in the building at any one time. Everyone was masked. Pens were single use only before being sanitized. Plexiglass shields were up, and social distancing was very well enforced.
Really, it was surprisingly conflict-free.
I can’t say if it was that way throughout the day, since I only saw it for about 10 minutes of voting, but it gave me hope that we can continue to come up with good, practical ways of moving on with life but doing so in a safe, responsible fashion.
Way to go, Maine!
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Like what you’ve read? Please consider supporting me on Patreon. Thanks to all my Patrons who support me! It only takes a minute or two, and then it’s automatic from there on out. I’ve posted the entirety of my book ICHABOD in installments, and I’m now putting up chapters from PAWN OF THE DEAD, another of my unreleased books. Where else are you going to get the undead and muppets all in the same YA package? Check it out.
If you’d rather not sign up for Patreon, you can also support the site by clicking the MEMORY THIEF Amazon link on the right of the page. That will take you to Amazon, where you can buy my books or anything else. During that visit, a portion of your purchase will go to me. It won’t cost you anything extra.
