About this time two years ago we were in Azerbaijan with our old college friend Alison. While this is remarkable in its own right–hell, the very idea of a vacation is remarkable right now–what sticks out in my mind is an epic walk Alison and I took one day. She wanted to revisit some of her old haunts while she’d been a Fulbright Scholar there 10 years previously. I think we wound up walking around eight miles. Saw Baku from the ground floor, as it were. Two boulevardiers, out for an afternoon stroll among the throng.
That’s inconceivable now, even here, at home, in the advanced West. Just going into a grocery store conveys the equivalence of some war movie’s suicide mission.
And, yes–it’s ridiculous. But until we have herd immunity or a vaccine, technically, anyone is susceptible to succumbing to or passing along this disease. Apart from remaining at home, the sole tool in our box at this time is social distancing–and it’s worked. At least in those states whose governor is enlightened enough to have declared a shelter in place order, and whose citizenry has both obeyed it and maintained social distancing on the occasions they have had to venture into the public.
California’s “curve” has been pounded into nonexistence. You can thank future president “Quick Draw” Newsom for that, as well as yourselves, for heeding him.
“It’s not rocket scientry,” as the Chief would say. Stay the course. Hold the line. Fight.
NO FLANEURING
No more weekends.
No more days.
Gone are freaking means and ways.
No flaneuring.
No more pews.
Gone’s enduring crowds and queus.
No more restaurants.
No more gym.
Gone, debutantes bright and dim.
No more sings.
No more pageants.
Gone are things yet unimagined.
Gone are things we haven’t thought of.
This is what we’ve made a knot of.
No more tests.
No PPE.
Gone to rest with our economy.
Now, it’s not all bleak. The climate, for instance, seems to have taken a well deserved break.
And nobody can redact memories. Just booze. Alzheimer’s. Bad family members.
What we have now is a new chance to reconnect, and in a different way. After all the home schooling, board games, home haircuts, gardening, binge watching and bitching is over–how about just enjoying it? How about just always remembering how close you were with your family during this dire time?
How glad you were the older kids came home and stayed.
It’s not rocket scientry.