Ramblings of a Estranged Mind
It's March 19th. In the last month, things have gone 'South' because of Covid-19. In the last week, Trudy and I have adopted the self-isolation route. We are not sick, at least not yet. The best concise perspective I've seen about self-isolation is that we should not consider we are doing this to avoid infection; instead we should assume we are and are doing this to avoid transmission. The point of 'flattening the curve' is to slow the spread of the disease to give our Healthcare system a fighting chance to keep up with predicted exponentially rising infection rates.
We also have Orit Shimoni staying with us. Orit is a travelling musician - literally 11 years on the road without a home - who happened to be in town for a house concert when all this crap went down. We were going to attend that concert but when the host cancelled, we stepped in to host it with a very small audience and post it on Facebook Live. It was a very pleasant evening for those of us in attendence and the live streaming went well for a first attempt, but I digress...
These are interesting and trying times. We really do not know what the future has in store for us. Many are optimistic that we will become more mindful - I certainly hope they are right. Many think the opposite (stoopid toilet paper hoarders). Many are very scared and anxious.
We are trying to be pragmatically optimistic. I know we are grateful for a bunch of things, among them:
- Family and friends. Even though we can't be together right now, we can text, chat, call, Facetime, etc. And we are.
- Being retired with regular pension cheques, no mortgage, and no debt!
- A spacious and comfortable home.
- Hobbies and a bunch of items in the Job Jar.
- Social Media - yup, that one can spin both ways but we're choosing to use it for communications with friends and family, supporting others doing good, and trying to do good ourselves.
- Food in the freezer (and toilet paper in the cupboard). No, we didn't hoard but we did happen to buy a decent stock just before the proverbial shit hit the fan.
- Music - an area where we're trying to do good by promoting Live streaming events.
- Running water, electricity, natural gas, etc.
- Our Public Healthcare system and the workers within it. It may not be perfect but right now I think it's stacking up pretty well against the others.
Finally for today, I was chatting on FB with a friend who is anxious as hell about her small business and her employees. My response to her concerns was lengthy but summed up it amounts to what is known as the serenity prayer (slightly paraphrased):
'Let me find the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference.'
Take care my friends, we are on a road with twists and bends, some days up and some days down, just remember Love is a verb and not a noun (unless your Courtney).