Fog today after a cold sunny weekend. Spring gives nods and faints as if it is here but then it retreats back into the shadows. I heard a humming bird buzz around our feeder yesterday but that was it. Our neighbor says she has several at her’s which is only about forty feet from ours but still I have not seen the little beggars. Fat Robbins appear on the lawn then disappear. Sapsuckers bang on drainpipes consistently and eagles play their broken flutes every morning. Friday night the stars were amazingly clear and the air seemed surprisingly warm when Dot and I went out for our evening walk. I thought sure the next day would be spring-like, but it was a two sweater day, in dazzling crisp sunlight. Beautiful walk in the estuary but no birds in the sparkling river.
In the morning Dot stretches for a few moments and then she rolls and summersaults on the moss rubbing her pretty coat hoping to carry the smell of earth on her the rest of the day.
The news is full of talk of “opening up the economy” and people are protesting their rights to go out and both get and spread the corona virus. “End The Government Restrictions!” I understand their frustrations, but I don’t see it as the Government’s fault. Who will they be angry with when their family members get sick and die? Who will they blame when this gets worse and they see for themselves that we need to do something, for longer and longer? They will blame their enemies, I’m sure. The strangers, or the ones they see as the haughty and elite. I don’t blame them, it’s only natural. It’s a shitty situation. But what can we do? Really…. what can we do to protect each other and ourselves?
We are being asked to be patient, and to support the scientists who can develop not just cures and vaccines but can develop mass testing and complex plans which will allow us to gradually be able to open up and shut down, open up in spots and shut down in spots. We are not good with slow and complex measures, but that is the best we can hope for in a battle against this indifferent disease. American culture is not good at waiting, or long term solutions, it’s not our strong suit.
Saturday, on the bridge over Katlian River
Yet, during the Second World War we found our grit. We found patient determination. Is it time to dig deep and find that again now? How did we find it then? I suppose because we had no choice. The Axis Powers were not going to stop. We lost more than one hundred thousand people in that struggle. We are likely to lose more than that in this struggle and there is no indication that the virus is not going to give up. We found the patience and the grit to perserveer for four years in the Civil War and the Second World War. We found the grit in the depression and the Spanish Flu and the First World War. We found common cause with people we didn’t know and we made sacrifices.
I believe to say that our individual right to do what we want; to go to restaurants and ball games is more important than the right of others to live, is tan amount to advocating surrender during World War II. “War Bonds are too expensive!” “Rubber Drives are too much work!” “The Draft is Not Fair… and it asks to much of ME for the benefit of some European!” “I Just Don’t Want To Go!… It Should Be My Choice!”
The big difference here and now, is that corporate America is being asked to make real sacrifices, and citizens are asked to stay at home to protect each other. In War Time corporations got rich and citizens volunteered their lives. We should be able to find the will to save our own lives, don't you think?
Saturday walk up Katlian River
Of course none of this is easy, and I’m being didactic. But I honestly do believe we are a generous people when called upon. Republicans, and Conservatives, Liberals and Democrats, Libertarians, and Independents, Priests, Saints and Convicts are going to die in the coming months. People we know, and people we have never heard of, after it is all over… and it will be over someday, we will have to ask ourselves what did we do to help staunch the suffering? Did we do the minimum to save lives, or did we stand up for our individual right to spend money on non necessary items, and our right to get and spread a implacable disease which killed our neighbors?
What would our parents have chosen? What would our great great grandparents have chosen?
A tug boat anchors
far out on a foggy night
her light burns like flame.
jhs
Here is a recording I made late morning. You can hear the noon whistle. I read the opening of The Curious Eat Themselves. I also spoke about some of the inspiration for the book, I forgot Larry McMurtry’s name, but now I remember.
