This just in!

America is skipping like a lark toward a growing virus threat: This virus is easily transmissible often with few outward signs of infection (although signs of an allergy to face covering is often diagnostic). 

We stand out among countries world wide as the site of Patient Zero for the virulent strain of Stupid-17 now endangering even (or especially) our youngest voters on whom our hopes for the future of the democracy and the climate depend.

We may be doomed.

But Summer! and Commerce! and Self-Reliance! and FREEDOM!!

This introduction to an article in the Washington Post (WaPo) caught my eye:

Trump will richly deserve his fate. But he won’t pay the heaviest cost.

Most people, institutions and nations perform badly under the initial onslaught of a novel threat. The U.S. was no different.

By Megan McArdle ● 

I started reading the article expecting to FINALLY read about Trump's major contribution to America's current crisis of governance. Because it is glaringly obvious that in January 2017 we experienced the initial onslaught of a novel threat. And I agree as asserted that he will not pay the heaviest cost. As indeed, he cannot: his life span will limit his earthly comeuppance. And we can be just as sure that the damage inflicted on our country will plague us for generations.

This suggests my current mood.

But, alas no: the article proved to be another telling of only one Trump disaster: the Covid-19 response. I am ashamed to admit that America’s Covid-19 experience has offered me the comfort of obvious facts for all who will see. Outcomes in a reality based universe are not in the least affected by my point of view. There is neither a Republican nor Democratic method to safely relax virus prevention methods. But there are science and data informed game plans which allow for adjustments to evolving and varying outcomes that offer the best shot at preserving life (and hence our economy). This virus turned out to be "worst case" being both highly contagious and deceptively presenting on a range from "nothing going on with me" to near sudden death. Nature is not playing fair (indeed she is not playing at all). Covid-19 has reminded us that our personal freedom is limited to the contagion bubble we each inhabit. And that compliance to health regulations in a pandemic is not a place to assert your personal freedoms to do entirely as you wish.

Do you believe that when the world next experiences a novel virus that:

It will find the world (including unique! USA) better prepared with stockpiled emergency supplies, well staffed and funded public health infrastructure, and competent governance at all critical junctures? Will we be living in a shared reality, with citizens fully cognizant that there is no INDIVIDUAL pandemic response, but only population based responses?

At this point, I have more faith in finally discovering that unicorns are living among us. I hope your faith is stronger and survives the slings and arrows of outrageous reality.

Fading away

I recently had a further DEXA scan of my bones, as I was diagnosed opsteopenic in 2011. My relevant family history is my mom having osteoporosis which led to two compression fractures in her lower spine. She had birdy little bones (unlike me), but she probably benefited from being rigorous in her dietary control (unlike me). However she was a regular drinker over several more decades than I was, and she was even less inclined to the sporting life than I.

That said, apparently my bones (and ONLY my bones) are beginning to fade away. I recall how annoyed Dad was when he was shown Mom's scans which looked ghostly. For several years he challenged Dr. Butt that she needed to have better scans before he was finally informed that the ghostly appearance of her bones was reality. (On a side note: my parsimonious tendencies were explained when I discovered that Dr. Butt's reluctance to move more quickly, was due to his impression that my parents had serious financial concerns which ruled out self-pay for additional interventions.)

So, I am working to get my actual DEXA scores spanning the last decade to quantify the fading.  My mom paid a large price in her social life, her activity choices, and years of discomfort before a surgical intervention stabilized the spinal compression damage and finally enabled her get out of bed and off major pain medication.

Isn't she a tiny powerhouse!

On the up side: my recently reclaimed avoirdupois makes all my activities even more weight bearing! But sadly, my deep water aerobics did not benefit the health of my skeleton. I KNEW that I would not be allowed to focus on exercise I enjoyed so much. Apparently against all reason, gravity IS my friend. Aaaaarrrrggghhh.

Ruth's Workout https://www.youtube.com/watch?reload=9&v=aSRTx3jg4RA

Reading as a lifeline

And by this I DO NOT MEAN news.

As I struggle to imagine a non-apocalyptic end to most of life on earth and an imminent end to our democracy , I can be temporarily distracted by  news of our amazing planet. As many have dryly pointed out: we are not now tasked with saving Earth: it will likely survive as a planet no matter what humans manage to do. It is the current, teetering web of life (of which we are a numerical minority, and the dominant threat) that is endangered. Every time I read of folks despairing over the economy instead of climate change and removing environmental protections to help goose an economic recovery, I lose the foothold in the equanimity I gain when I focus on our miraculous galactic life raft.

Today I read the announcement of a successful manned journey to the deepest deep: Challenger in the Marianas Trench. I had not before heard of the deepest spot as my last recollection was the deepest trench, which I took to be the end of the discussion. Oh silly me. Science rarely (if not never) reaches an absolute and entire truth. That is one of it's strengths, and the basis for the two tenets of my personal belief system: Be Kind, Be Humble. I am an abysmal adherent.

Fellow creature realizing he could have read a book instead.

To prove my failure, here is a question that came up on Google under the inquiry: "how deep is the pacific ocean?". There was a box answering related questions, including: "can you swim to the bottom of the ocean?"  I roared with laughter at what I judged to be amazing ignorance. So you see, I do not walk my think very well. And the entire basis of this blog rests on me being unwilling to do so.

So, reading both fiction and non-fiction have afforded my what conscious (excludes sleep, and binge viewing, puzzling and/or snacking) respite I enjoy that counts as more than escapism.

Next, someone will turn the flag upside down over the White House

This tidbit* on events last night as protests against the deadly rigged legal system raged across the country:

"A curfew goes into effect at 11:00 tonight in Washington, D.C. For the past several days, trouble has begun as peaceful protesters go home, leaving the streets to those spoiling for a fight. As 11:00 hits, crowds around the White House are setting fires and attempting to break into the White House grounds. Just before the curfew, the lights that usually illuminate the outside of the White House were turned off."

When upside down is a good thing.

The lights were doused at the symbolic head of our country: finally a definitive acknowledgement of the current status of our democracy. I cannot wait for November, and yet await it with a profound dread. Four years ago the unthinkable occurred: we invited in barbarian rule. Unthinkable (for me), but entirely real for all of us. It was as if I awoke in a foreign country. Even the many accounts of true patriotic actions by concerned and caring Americans across the county have not succeeded in convincing me that we will agree to banish it to history.


* From Heather Cox Richardson's "Letters from an American"