Re: Keeping our current situation in perspective, this from my ex-coworker at Rocketdyne, John Griffith, now in North Carolina:
"Imagine you were born in 1900. On your 14th birthday, World War I starts, and ends on your 18th birthday. 22 million people perish in that war.Later in that year, a Spanish Flu epidemic hits the planet and runs until your 20th birthday. 50 million people die from it in those two years.On your 29th birthday, the Great Depression begins. Unemployment hits 25%, the World GDP drops 27%. That runs until you are 33. The country nearly collapses along with the world economy.When you turn 39, World War II starts. You aren’t even over the hill yet. And don’t try to catch your breath. On your 41st birthday, the United States is fully pulled into WWII. Between your 39th and 45th birthday, 75 million people perish in the war.At 50, the Korean War starts. 5 million perish.At 55, the Vietnam War begins and doesn’t end for 20 years. 4 million people perish in that conflict.On your 62nd birthday you have the Cuban Missile Crisis, a tipping point in the Cold War. Life on our planet, as we know it, could have ended. Great leaders prevented that from happening.When you turn 75, the Vietnam War finally ends."
My father was born in 1909, and my mother is 1912. Nadine parents in 1912 and 1914. They did experience most of this history.
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It occurs to me that we (our species) have entered into a giant, if unplanned, public health experiment. Various countries, states, counties and cities have set up, and are now taking down, various restrictions on their populaces. It’s not ideal, in that there is no “control group”. But I imagine in the future, statisticians and epidemiologists will have a field day analyzing what factors led to successes and to disasters as this experiment unfolds.
Personally, Nadine and I both lean toward caution in terms of venturing out into the public space. But we have not lost jobs or income as a result of the shutdown. We don’t have children sitting at home bored to death. Our groceries are delivered to our front door. So it’s a no-brainer for us.
It’s true that most Americans (and most humans) either are impacted by the epidemic, or will be, to one degree or another. And that gives some feeling of solidarity to us all. But it’s also true that the burdens are very unevenly spread out. I read a piece in the NYTimes recently by an ER doctor, who is having to consider how forthcoming to be with critically-ill patients about their prospects for survival, and for life after intubation. And he is dealing on the phone or video with family members who may have to give consent to decisions. So much burden falling on such a small slice of our society. Following is a link to this article:
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/04/opinion/coronavirus-doctors-do-not-resuscitate.html?searchResultPosition=1
Personally, Nadine and I both lean toward caution in terms of venturing out into the public space. But we have not lost jobs or income as a result of the shutdown. We don’t have children sitting at home bored to death. Our groceries are delivered to our front door. So it’s a no-brainer for us.
It’s true that most Americans (and most humans) either are impacted by the epidemic, or will be, to one degree or another. And that gives some feeling of solidarity to us all. But it’s also true that the burdens are very unevenly spread out. I read a piece in the NYTimes recently by an ER doctor, who is having to consider how forthcoming to be with critically-ill patients about their prospects for survival, and for life after intubation. And he is dealing on the phone or video with family members who may have to give consent to decisions. So much burden falling on such a small slice of our society. Following is a link to this article:
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/04/opinion/coronavirus-doctors-do-not-resuscitate.html?searchResultPosition=1
Nadine and I are meditating more than ever before, almost every day. Our son Matt told us about HeadSpace, a mindfulness app he uses. We decide to try it. We are about half-way thru the 3rd introductory session, but we forgot to put the landline phone outside of the room, and it rings. It’s Matt. Formerly, I would have been annoyed, both that we forgot to put the phone outside of the room, and that Nadine decides to take Matt's call. But I am not. They finish their call, and then we return to the meditation session. I think the meditation is working!
Tuesday: it’s 90 degrees in the late afternoon and the sun is still fairly high in the sky. We take our second walk of the day. I remember the hot and muggy days of summer in Philadelphia. My father would come home, and fill the one bathtub with cold water and submerge himself to cool off. I decide to try this when we get home. Somewhat of a shock to my system, but it did cool me off. (I never saw a private swimming pool until later, when I was 17 years old, in Buffalo NY)
Nadine and I are using some of the “spare time” we now have to work on family history and geneaology. We have both submitted saliva samples to 23AndMe, and gotten back results. So far, 23AndMe has identiified many 2nd, 3rd and 4th cousins for Nadine, fewer for me.
In one case, Nadine has been linked with a cousin who, it turns out, has found out from 23AndMe that the father who raised her was not her biological father. Her mother and father are both gone, so there is no one to ask about this discovery, to process it with. I have heard on good authority that this happens to about 2% of all the persons who use these genetic services.
Our son Phil has been scanning hundreds of old family photos and making the digital copies available to his parents and his siblings. In part, this is what has triggered the renewed interest in family history. In talking with him recently, it came out that my mother, Dele, who did a lot of family history tracing, sent Phil’s wife Tracy some of her work about 20 years ago. Tracy has found this material, and Phil has now scanned it also. Lots of stuff to work on in our “spare time”.
On our afternoon walk, down a still somewhat de-populated Wilshire Blvd, it appears that both pedestrian and auto traffic are returning, and more folks not wearing masks in public. The buses are still running but with just a few passengers.
Nadine and I are using some of the “spare time” we now have to work on family history and geneaology. We have both submitted saliva samples to 23AndMe, and gotten back results. So far, 23AndMe has identiified many 2nd, 3rd and 4th cousins for Nadine, fewer for me.
In one case, Nadine has been linked with a cousin who, it turns out, has found out from 23AndMe that the father who raised her was not her biological father. Her mother and father are both gone, so there is no one to ask about this discovery, to process it with. I have heard on good authority that this happens to about 2% of all the persons who use these genetic services.
Our son Phil has been scanning hundreds of old family photos and making the digital copies available to his parents and his siblings. In part, this is what has triggered the renewed interest in family history. In talking with him recently, it came out that my mother, Dele, who did a lot of family history tracing, sent Phil’s wife Tracy some of her work about 20 years ago. Tracy has found this material, and Phil has now scanned it also. Lots of stuff to work on in our “spare time”.
On our afternoon walk, down a still somewhat de-populated Wilshire Blvd, it appears that both pedestrian and auto traffic are returning, and more folks not wearing masks in public. The buses are still running but with just a few passengers.
Thursday: Rabbi Lebovitz’ Torah study class on Zoom. Class members tailor their "backgrounds" on Zoom: green meadows with a rainbow arching in the blue sky; surf on the beach with palm trees swaying in the breeze; the sanctuary of the old Portuguese shul in Amsterdam. Our “background" is our den with OfficeDepot storage boxes in the corner. Class members caught yawning. The rabbi has not had a haircut in many weeks, says that with plenty of gel, he soon will look like Pat Reilly.
That’s it for now.
Stay safe, wash your hands, keep your distance, be kind to one another
And call your mother (if possible)….Mother’s Day (US) is Sunday.
Coleman
PHOTO GALLERY:
Regular gasoline under $3.00? I can not remember when this last occurred in Los Angeles. That’s the good news.
The bad news: we don’t need any right now
More local homegrown art in support to those persons who are keeping the wheels on our economy and our health care rolling:
The jacarandas in bloom in the park behind our building:
Outdoor gyms spring up in PanPacific Park:
From my brother Stan, in New Hampshire, words of encouragement for our future:
From Peter Imber in Maine: Trump's nostalgia for “the good old days”,:
And finally, who nu that Nuestro Presidente habla Espanol?
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