Dud’s New Normal

          The changes being imposed on our world can vary widely from the maddening to the almost unnoticed. Friend Dudley seems to be handling the changes rather poorly, and I’ve begun to worry about him regularly: “The guy with the underwear on his face” has actually started to be proud of that description, and has learned that if he reverses the original “fly on top of the head” to putting the fly over his nose and mouth actually makes it easier to see through the leg holes. He uses his great grandson’s drawers, stretching the “back’ of them over the top of his balding head and the front waistband over his chin. He’s actually quite famous for this look in certain grocery and beverage stores.

          His attitude toward the rest of the world is also changing: Where he was once just a grumpy old guy with little or no filter on his mouth, he now seems actively to look for things to moan about in his daily travels. “Remember when, if a guy came to your door in a mask you’d reach for your shotgun behind the door? Well, now if he comes to my door WITHOUT a mask on I reach for the damn gun! And in the stores it’s worse! You try to stay 6 feet apart (more or less) and some asshole invariably steps into the space in front of you – as if you aren’t in line! And if you show him the back of the line he acts like you’re either making it up or trying to pick a fight.”(He was getting red-faced by now.) “I actually had to threaten to nut some guy to get him to move” Now, Dud isn’t an imposing figure, by any means, but he’s heavy and can look deadly serious when he says things like that. He gives the impression he believes he can actually do it if he wants to.

          Dud has also taken to engaging strangers in conversations about what’s wrong with everything from Trump to the NFL. And he has very sharp opinions about just about everything. He believes, for example, that professional sporting events should be carried out on schedule, without live fans – as in the recent baseball trials. He feels the mainstream TV networks would pay so handsomely for the rights to televise games that the franchises would be able to clear as much money from them as they used to make between TV rights and live audiences in the stands. I don’t know that Dud has the slightest idea of what such income would have to be, but like most politicians and public figures, he seems to think if he says it with enough authority in his voice the world will just accept it. I tried to tell him he can’t just copy the hot air he sees on the tube, but Dud doesn’t place much stock in common sense.

          I think what most concerns me is that Dudley seems to be taking so much more joy in the conflicts arising from the pandemic’s effects. He spent half-an-hour the other day explaining to me the complicated sequence of mask on and mask off regulations at his doctor’s office. From wearing it in off the street to off during the “vitals” check to back on while describing the complaint and off for the doctor…etc. He seemed to be enjoying the hassle of it all because it gave him another story to complain about. And that’s the rub: I don’t think it’s just Dud! Almost everyone you talk to for any length of time falls into the same routine. They go on and on about how annoying this or that rule or precaution is, and want an exchange of anecdotal support for their personal gripes. Yet, in the end, Dud and the others seem to be doing the annoying and inconvenient and staying healthy because of it. I know that with my pre-existing health conditions I’m damn glad to say I haven’t got the COVID-19 disease; and I’m just as glad that Dud and my own family are all (relatively) healthy and making it slowly through this year of the plague!

 

vince katarzynski

The Plague of 2020 Goes On

          I don’t know if it’s “PC” to call a pandemic a plague, but it sure feels like one. The number of cases is growing – faster in this country than on a worldwide basis – and while the number of deaths in this country seems to vary from State to State it is overall still alarming. Smarter and more scientifically trained minds than mine might be able to say precisely why this is so, but I chose not to point fingers here. I have decided that when the qualified analysts write the history of this episode in American history, they will find supporting, opposing, and contributing factors all mingled in a hot brew of genuine efforts, classic errors, and lack of information at crucial times.

          But what seems more important to me is the ways in which WE, Americans, responded to all of this. The vast majority of us seem to be trying mightily to do our quiet parts to help where we can: From underpants repurposed to make masks (only one that I know of), to hand-made masks of every description, to commercially made products of multiple qualities and prices, most of us try to “mask up” when out in the world. We (usually) try to meet the “social distancing” standards set by medical advisors. We use soap and water or sanitizers much more than we did before. We even visit those closest to us less often and with more care than ever before.

          And it’s those who DON’T do these things that seem invariably to throw a monkey wrench into our carefully laid plans: It’s the idiot worrying about “my right to refuse to wear a mask if I don’t want to…” who screws things up. NOBODY wants to wear a mask, MORON! We do it out of a sense of community and cooperation. We do it to protect ourselves and the next guy from a possibly deadly infection. While these “My Rights” assholes are throwing parties where dozens of unmasked, unknown people crowd into a bar or pool area or living area, they are being infected in large numbers and happily taking the COVID-19 virus home to their families, and to their work places and other group meeting places. And it’ll usually be their contacts, the ones who DIDN’T go to the party, who will pay the awful price of their stupidity. Sadly, as the saying goes: “You can’t fix stupid!”

          (I have to say this:) Possibly the worst enemy in the fight against the virus is “the economy”. In the push to re-open the states and get back to “normal” function in everyday business, we are almost universally opening things up too early. States that “re-opened” earlier are now back-tracking and even re-closing their economies because of new spikes in infections. And each state, each industry, each individual business is pushing to open up because they fear economic implosion, Yet the history of each past pandemic or plague or war or whatever has always shown economic resurgence immediately after. The economy WILL rebound, Will recoup its losses, and WILL provide those that lost businesses with ample opportunities to start fresh and grow stronger having weathered the tragedy.

          I know I’m not a doctor or medical expert, I’m not an economist or business expert, or even a learned historian or philosopher. I don’t stand to lose economically or professionally, just physically should I contract this disease. I may have no right to lecture people on how to behave. But I sincerely believe that as bad as things are, we have our fellow humans to thank for the depth and severity of our current situation. We should all be praying for the strength to stick by our efforts to fight this thing, and for His guidance on how we go about it. Certainly the congress and medical agencies need guidance in cooperating with each other toward a common goal. And just as certainly, the President, Congressional leaders, and medical advisors need guidance in providing leadership and direction to the public whose lives are literally in their hands. I just hope that when any one of them steps up and says: “OK, we need to do ABandC, and to accomplish that we need to use XYandZ”, the others recognize the wisdom and support him or her all the way.

 

Vince Katarzynski