Please forgive me for not writing much about the covid-19 pandemic until today. I could not really grasp the enormity of what has been going on until I saw the data. Something clicked in my head on the Summer Solstice. I watch the statistics being put out by Wisconsin's Department of Health both the "new" (identified or some prefer the term "confirmed" cases) in the realm of science, it is important to note that thirty percent of "negative" tests are people who are actually infected and contagious. That is why testing alone is not any sort of remedy or silver bullet.
I have considered becoming a contact tracer, that is a huge need right now. If people want to work, this is going to be steady for a while! At least until we get a vaccine because in the U.S. of A. our population has proved that "we" Amerikkkans, can't get together for anything. If and when I get sick, my contacts have averaged less than six people per two week interval and at this point, most of the same people are in a group half that size. Remember Eighth Grade Sex-Ed? In case you were not listening, they said that if you had unprotected sex, it was as if you had sex with all of that other person's partners. This, is just like that, but instead of having to "do the nasty" or even be intimate, you just have to breathe the same air or touch the same object. The most amazing thing is that I learned all of this from hippies, decades ago. Don't touch the thing to the thing is easy. You can teach anyone who has reached the concrete operational stage of growth what that is, but our breath is invisible, so it takes a higher level of cognition to "get it".
It really hit me hard when Summer Solstice rolled around this year and the deaths from covid-19 in Wisconsin that day just happened to be fourteen, it began this cascading wave of emotions highlighted with realization. It was as if there were a large volume of water that was super chilled and ready to freeze, and that as each ice crystal formed, it sparked another photons worth of understanding. More than 750 people have died from covid-19 in my state alone. That number is lower than reality because some people never get tested and as two of my friends experienced, stroke after covid-19 becomes more common, you still are said to have died from stroke, but the stroke was caused by their bodies trying to heal from covid-19, so IMHO they are covid-19 deaths.
If you know anything about Wisconsin, you may know that we have effectively about three months to swim. We may have liquid water for more than half the year, but most of that time, just the coldness of most of that water will kill you if you are in it too long. We relish the Summers around here and the more than a dozen folks who will not get to have the joy of summer really started to help this virus "appear" in my mind's eye. That does not even include the loved-ones who, when family reunions are allowed again won't see their relative there, will not have had a chance to grieve their loss. We have had two deaths in our family since stay-at-home orders were imposed, it feels like there are holes in my soul where those loved-ones were, those human activities that we are missing out on, the not being allowed to hold the hand of a loved-one as they pass, not being able to comfort or ease the passing in any way is perhaps what I fear most. I could get sick, die or recover and it would not be as important as the fourteen people who passed on that day. Here I was, trying to pull up the first-ever world-wide streaming of sunset at Stonehenge and more than a dozen citizens of my state were lost due to shameful ignorance about this virus. For many, our families are like boats. They support and protect us when times are stormy or rough. When you can't be closer than six feet to them, it feels as if there are gaping holes in the hull of that family. The turbulence that it once protected us from is being allowed to seep and squirt, gush and flow in, swamping what used to keep us afloat.
Feeling the weight of just one reality, one day of the death toll, multiplied the nearly one thousand times was bad enough, then I had to realize that Wisconsin is just one of fifty states, ours is one of nearly two hundred countries on the planet and we are less than six months into our experience of global pandemic. The fastest a new vaccine has ever been produced was for mumps, that took four years. Please, stay home, wash your hands! Glove up! Wear a mask in public and consider eye protection as well. I truly love every single one of you and want you to be able to enjoy as many summers as you can! One thing that helps me greatly is to think through different events and contact points you may have with the outside world. Think about them before they happen. When you go to the drive through, you could glove up and have a sanitizing wipe at the ready to wipe down the outside of the container. I always wipe my card with sanitizer when it comes out of the reader. I often touch only the gas pump with my left hand for instance, that way I only have to wear one glove. My own car I am willing to touch with the un-gloved hand. In fact, I only touch it with un-gloved hands, that way it helps me to make a distinction between what I have and have not touched from elsewhere. If I make a mistake and touch it with a gloved hand, I go back and wipe those surfaces down with the sanitizing wipes. These sorts of brain teasers gain value because when you think critically about certain things, it helps one to see more clearly at other scales and to develop broader perspective on a variety of issues.
Finally, we can always create a new economic system that serves us better. We can't bring back the dead.
I have considered becoming a contact tracer, that is a huge need right now. If people want to work, this is going to be steady for a while! At least until we get a vaccine because in the U.S. of A. our population has proved that "we" Amerikkkans, can't get together for anything. If and when I get sick, my contacts have averaged less than six people per two week interval and at this point, most of the same people are in a group half that size. Remember Eighth Grade Sex-Ed? In case you were not listening, they said that if you had unprotected sex, it was as if you had sex with all of that other person's partners. This, is just like that, but instead of having to "do the nasty" or even be intimate, you just have to breathe the same air or touch the same object. The most amazing thing is that I learned all of this from hippies, decades ago. Don't touch the thing to the thing is easy. You can teach anyone who has reached the concrete operational stage of growth what that is, but our breath is invisible, so it takes a higher level of cognition to "get it".
 |
| Best Fireworks Ever! |
It really hit me hard when Summer Solstice rolled around this year and the deaths from covid-19 in Wisconsin that day just happened to be fourteen, it began this cascading wave of emotions highlighted with realization. It was as if there were a large volume of water that was super chilled and ready to freeze, and that as each ice crystal formed, it sparked another photons worth of understanding. More than 750 people have died from covid-19 in my state alone. That number is lower than reality because some people never get tested and as two of my friends experienced, stroke after covid-19 becomes more common, you still are said to have died from stroke, but the stroke was caused by their bodies trying to heal from covid-19, so IMHO they are covid-19 deaths.
If you know anything about Wisconsin, you may know that we have effectively about three months to swim. We may have liquid water for more than half the year, but most of that time, just the coldness of most of that water will kill you if you are in it too long. We relish the Summers around here and the more than a dozen folks who will not get to have the joy of summer really started to help this virus "appear" in my mind's eye. That does not even include the loved-ones who, when family reunions are allowed again won't see their relative there, will not have had a chance to grieve their loss. We have had two deaths in our family since stay-at-home orders were imposed, it feels like there are holes in my soul where those loved-ones were, those human activities that we are missing out on, the not being allowed to hold the hand of a loved-one as they pass, not being able to comfort or ease the passing in any way is perhaps what I fear most. I could get sick, die or recover and it would not be as important as the fourteen people who passed on that day. Here I was, trying to pull up the first-ever world-wide streaming of sunset at Stonehenge and more than a dozen citizens of my state were lost due to shameful ignorance about this virus. For many, our families are like boats. They support and protect us when times are stormy or rough. When you can't be closer than six feet to them, it feels as if there are gaping holes in the hull of that family. The turbulence that it once protected us from is being allowed to seep and squirt, gush and flow in, swamping what used to keep us afloat.
Feeling the weight of just one reality, one day of the death toll, multiplied the nearly one thousand times was bad enough, then I had to realize that Wisconsin is just one of fifty states, ours is one of nearly two hundred countries on the planet and we are less than six months into our experience of global pandemic. The fastest a new vaccine has ever been produced was for mumps, that took four years. Please, stay home, wash your hands! Glove up! Wear a mask in public and consider eye protection as well. I truly love every single one of you and want you to be able to enjoy as many summers as you can! One thing that helps me greatly is to think through different events and contact points you may have with the outside world. Think about them before they happen. When you go to the drive through, you could glove up and have a sanitizing wipe at the ready to wipe down the outside of the container. I always wipe my card with sanitizer when it comes out of the reader. I often touch only the gas pump with my left hand for instance, that way I only have to wear one glove. My own car I am willing to touch with the un-gloved hand. In fact, I only touch it with un-gloved hands, that way it helps me to make a distinction between what I have and have not touched from elsewhere. If I make a mistake and touch it with a gloved hand, I go back and wipe those surfaces down with the sanitizing wipes. These sorts of brain teasers gain value because when you think critically about certain things, it helps one to see more clearly at other scales and to develop broader perspective on a variety of issues.
Finally, we can always create a new economic system that serves us better. We can't bring back the dead.
