Saturday, March 21, 2020

Shelter in place

We live perpetually on the knife edge of hope and dread. In New York City, the massive Jacob Javits Convention Center, home to the world motorcycle and boat shows, new age seminars and international furniture fairs, Comic Con festivals and worldwide Book Expos, is being converted into a field hospital. Hospital beds float on a lake of white marble, waiting for the crest of the curve of an illness that couldn't be flattened nearly enough.

From where I sit next to the window, the city is eerily still. Yet my niece just came back from a run in the park, and she said everyone else seemed to have the same idea. She ran fast, so as not to tarry in anyone's orbit, breathing the same air.

My son works alongside some of the most dyed-in-red conservatives in New York City. In his firehouse, Fox News blares from the TV all day. This is why he knows that a large swath of America thinks the pathological liar who is president is doing a good job. "And if he gives people Covid bailout money," he says, "I'm telling you now, it's a wrap."

I can't shake the sense that the earth is resetting itself, but maybe that's just a delusion. It's sunny outside. Spring is coming to our garden. The world looks no different really than it did two short weeks ago, before we truly understood the dangers. But it feels different, as if we've wondered into some dystopian science fiction movie in which the monster is unseen, diffuse, and no one knows the direction from which it will strike, nor how, nor if, we will vanquish it when it does.




13 comments:

  1. Wow...I was already feeling anxious and seeing two of my neighbors chatting outside with no distance between them, I remain convinced that the bulk of our citizens are stupid. I just hope one doesn't kill me. Hugs to you and your son and all those poor souls who will fill those beds on marble floors.

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  2. I think that living in a big urban area is probably much more of a surreal experience than it is living in a place like Lloyd. From my back porch, everything looks exactly the same. But perhaps that makes what's happening on the news and in the world even more surreal. I don't know. I don't pretend to know one damn thing about this absolutely unheard of situation. I can't even begin to bear the thought of another Trump term under these (or any, to be honest) circumstances.
    As to the earth resetting itself, Hank posted a link to this on FB today: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/2020/03/coronavirus-pandemic-fake-animal-viral-social-media-posts/?fbclid=IwAR1Tl0Jer2ap4_p3K7lcK-qAof5tWXQ4uOkFIrCjD2-MPtGh41ADXqDrHZg
    Yeah. That's a long, long url.
    But I am certain that air pollution is far less than it was a month ago, taking the whole world into account.
    I love you, woman. I want you and yours to be safe and healthy and well. More than I can say.

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  3. I feel for your son for that working environment. Kudos to him! And I think he's right. Trump seems to be The Teflon Man as far as his base goes.

    Thankfully there are scientists out there and medical people out there and folks like your son helping people. May he stay safe from harm.

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  4. Sending love and hope from the northwest corner of Washington State. One day at a time.

    Sabine's quote from Seamus Heaney is sustenance:

    Hope is not optimism, which expects things to turn out well, but something rooted in the conviction that there is good worth working for.

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  5. I get what your son is saying, but I don’t think it’s that simple. It’s gonna take a lot more than $1500 to dig out of this mess. I fear riots. The have-nots vs. the haves.

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  6. It's unfathomable to me that anyone could think Trump is doing a good job. Even through the lens of Fox News it seems like it would be hard to sell that as truth. But I'm sure his fans will stay fans. I wonder how all this is going to affect the presidential election.

    I went for a walk on the Heath with the dog yesterday and I'm so glad I did. We do have to maintain our sanity one way or another -- as long as we keep that six-foot buffer.

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  7. I'm just jealous that all your snow is gone and the hostas are coming up.

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  8. he is losing supporters, those that can still think but his cult members will be with him to the bitter end. our underpopulated county finally has its first confirmed case and it's in the town I go to for yoga class so I may or may not go next week. life seems normal around here but like Ms Moon, it's away from a heavily populated area. they keep saying the next two weeks it's going to be out of control. all we can do is sit tight and hold on til it passes.

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  9. I don't know why it surprises me that Fox News is on in a city Fire House. It seems crazy to me. I worry about the powers that the President will try to grant himself in this dangerous time. I hope you all stay safe and healthy there. This is just the beginning...

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  10. It is like some post apocalyptic horror movie...I see photos of NYC and Seattle, both look like abandoned urban scapes. The quiet must be surreal as well. I drove around Fort Collins the other day, first day of spring and it was snowing. Eerily quiet. I just had to get out. I've been in isolation for over 2 weeks now. I'm waiting for that wave to hit, just like it has every other country. Meanwhile, I limit my news to once or twice a day -- otherwise my anxiety level would go through the roof.

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  11. The pollution levels have lowered to such an extent in Venice that the swans and the dolphins have come back .I am not saying that this alters anything that is happening but there are beautiful giant fish swimming in clean water in a city and that is as real as anything else that is going on - and they are HOPE .

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  12. Your son could be right but we this will not be over soon. That man with the orange hair will have to come up with a lot more to keep his supporters going. We are told here to think 18 months with initial severe distancing followed by some easing and more distancing, whatever it takes to slow it down.

    Have a read here:

    https://medium.com/@tomaspueyo/coronavirus-the-hammer-and-the-dance-be9337092b56

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  13. That article Sabine linked to is a good one, if not terrifying. It's so weird here, many people have low front walls and they lean on them, and people who walk by stand on the other side of they street and that's how we chat. There's more chatting now than before, so that's nice. The Canadians are streaming out of the neighborhood at an increasing rate, their government wants them to come home. It's all surreal.

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