Coping With Disaster

So, how are we doing? I mean this social isolation thing.  I know that, technically, we are not “isolated”. I mean, if I go outside, I can see and speak with our neighbors, maintaining the ten foot separation thing.  And if I go for a nice long, brisk walk, I will encounter other folks and I can wave at them and yell “stay safe”.  Still, it isn’t the same as walking into Trader Joe’s and getting a hug from one of the sales ladies, who always greet us with open arms.  Or walking into Cabarrus Brewing Company and being greeted by the folks waiting on people and pouring some nice beers.  Now, I’m an introvert, but these social contacts I love and need. It means I’m still alive.

One of the interesting things about growing old is that you move slowly into a form of social isolation anyway. An important and consistent part of our social life over the past 65 years is social events. I don’t mean concerts or anything big, but just cocktails and dinner at someone’s home, you know the things neighbors and friends do with some frequency.  In our early (young) years after marriage, such events were practically weekly affairs. Either we threw a cocktail/dinner party, or we were invited to one.  When we lived in downtown San Francisco, our friends loved to attend our dinner parties.  We had a fabulous apartment with a lovely formal dining room and a living room with French windows overlooking Nob Hill.  And when we lived in New Delhi, dinner parties were common and frequent, and they always involved an international party set—folks from England, France, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, and of course America and India.

So, we lived amidst a party lifestyle.  Now, when we retired, such events slowed down, as one might expect. They didn’t stop, but definitely slowed down.  Then, I noticed, the events slowed to a crawl, and then finally stopped. Part of it is that we don’t really live in party city. Many of our friends are retired, and the cocktail party circuit tends not to include the retired sets.

And now, folks—all folks—are told to just stay home. Do not entertain. Do Not Pass Go. Just stay home.  And so, the world has entered a quiet zone. TV series are big. Binge watching is the new Thing. And curiously, we watched an episode of a new series on PBS, the World on Fire. It is about the beginnings of World War II.  Talk about changing your lifestyle.  But there, things called bombs were dropping on buildings occupied by people. And, in Poland at least, German soldiers began roaming through the streets shooting people at will.  Now, that will really change your party lifestyle. 

And it began bringing back memories, growing up as a kid in Manhattan during the 1940s.  I was little to be sure, ages 6-11 during the war. But memories persist.  Food rationing for example.  I still remember the ration stamps used to buy food and other supplies (see you really couldn’t hoard toilet paper, because the Government didn’t let you, unlike now). Once, I remember our little dog, Cleo. Someone had brought home the packet of meat for dinner, but left it out on the table. Cleo, being a hungry dude, climbed up and then grabbed the packet of meat, brought it down to the floor, and began consuming it. Shrieks of horror ensued immediately after he was caught in the act.  I believe that was the last time I saw Cleo in our flat.

And then, although we could go in and out, we had to pay attention to the blackouts. No lights after a certain time. I still remember the air raid warden knocking on the back door of our flat and cautioning us to keep the lights off.  Now, we were fortunate. No bombers of the German ilk ever flew over our city, dropping bombs. Such events were reserved to the Brits and other Europeans.  But we remained aware of the threat, leaving behind a trail of modest fear, especially for a young one.

And then, of course, we listened to the radio, to periodic chats by President Roosevelt about the War’s progress. These were neither happy nor unhappy events, but simply information sessions. But, unlike today’s daily briefings from our current president, Roosevelt’s lacked any obvious political campaigning. He simply informed us periodically about the War. Whereas our daily’s from President Stupidhead are really all about him and his Facebook ratings.

And therein lies a major difference, or perhaps several major differences.

First, the enemies (and there were two) could be named and seen, at least metaphorically—the Germans and the Japanese. We periodically could see pictures, if we attended a movie and watched the newsreels that preceded each film—yes, each film was preceded by an actual newsreel, and often a cartoon show of some kind.  And the newsreels showed us pictures of planes doing their things, or troops on the march someplace.  See, we had a visible ENEMY, and we had folks engaging that ENEMY. And we had a president to reassure us when our fears began to mount.

But now, we have an enemy of sorts, but it cannot be seen. Nope, the COVID 19 virus remains hidden from view. Oh we have cartoon pictures that periodically appear, but they are just that—cartoons.  And we have no troops or planes swooping in on that enemy. Instead, we have lectures from various people, including many, many stupid ones, telling us what we cannot do, or what we should do.  And then we are left to watch our daily round of British mysteries—thank god for Midsommer Murders, Death in Paradise, and others of that ilk.  And we get at best confusing progress notes from various figures, many of whom cannot and should not be believed. One of the truly fake news outlets attempting to inform us is something called One America News Network. Also known as One America News, it is a “conservative”, far-right (meaning fascist) “news” and “opinion” channel owned by Herring Networks, Inc. It appears to be some kind of really horrible joke on America, with the anchor signing off each night, saying, “ . . . even when I’m wrong, I’m right.” Seriously??

So, between Fox and this horrible joke network, Americans are besieged daily by crap “news”, competing with legitimate news outlets for attention.

And that is really, really different from what we received during our various wars (Yeah, we’ve had, since I was born, WW II, Korea, Vietnam, and then the explosion of the entire Middle East (thank you Shrub). But it was easier to tell real from fake news during all those wars than it seems to be now. I think it’s because the enemy was more literal, and could be seen. Now the enemy is this invisible thing that may be creeping up to us at any moment without our knowledge, just because we are near someone else.  And so, the fear continues.

All we can do is to continue paying attention to the knowledgeable front line troops—people like Dr. Fauci, and others like him who are actually engaged in this battle.  With Trump and any/all of his spokespeople, we need to keep our distance intellectually as well as physically. Because we know he lies almost every time he opens his mouth, it is difficult to listen to him, no less respect anything he says. So, take everything with the appropriate grain of salt.  Or just don’t believe anything he says, until it’s been verified by someone you trust.

And that’s the way it is.