Thanksgiving Thoughts

 It has been a strange Thanksgiving.  Just when we thought we had this COVID thing under control, the seasons changed, bringing new cases and alarmingly rapid increases of hospitalizations along with the cooler weather.  New words have entered our vocabularies, such as "Zoomsgiving."  People who would normally gather with groups of family members made the difficult decision to stay home this year, cooking Thanksgiving feasts for themselves alone.

We have to be careful, and to care about others beyond our own families.  Too many families have lost family members to this Pandemic.  Too many nurses, doctors, and support staff members of COVID units have succumbed to this disease.  Today, Black Friday, many folks are doing their holiday shopping online as opposed to out in the stores.  And even the stores are limiting how many shoppers may enter at one time.  One thing hasn't changed since the summer:  masks here in New York are mandatory for going out in public.  You can't even enter a store without wearing one.

What do we have to be thankful for this holiday season?  Zoom, for one thing.  Back in the 1960s when two of my brothers were at war, our family would place a cassette tape machine (remember those?) in the middle of the table during holiday meals, and talk to our missing family members as though they were sitting in their places at the table.  We would then mail the tapes to them, and they would receive them (maybe) days or even weeks later.  How lucky we are to have such immediate communication these days!

We are resilient people.  We are innovative.  Yesterday my husband and I watched the annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade on TV, appreciating how the producers put together a "parade" that looked like a scaled-down version of the real thing.  In reality, the parade was one block long, lacked student marching bands, had fewer floating balloons, and all of the musical performances were pre-recorded.  Even the Rockettes wore face masks, and didn't do their signature high kicks.  That would mean too much aerosol from heavy breathing hanging in the air during their strenuous choreography.  Yes, many things have changed, and yet we carry on.

Now we are officially in the holiday season.  What is the greatest gift we can give to our loved ones?  Could we adjust our usual habits and keep a distance, while still sharing the love?  Can we take one for the team?  I think we can...Be caring.  Be thoughtful.  Be creative, and above all, be safe.

Have a wonderful holiday season.  And do what you can to make sure others do, too...

Not Why, but How

   We are now in Week Nine of the "New York Pause."  63 days.  Tomorrow starts Week Ten.  There is talk of "Quarantine Fatigue," of people letting their guard down, not wearing masks, not standing six feet apart, and not staying home.
   In another era, there would be less complaining about compliance and more patience.  When did we become people who could not accept hardship on behalf of the health and safety of others?  When did we become a population of whiners, asking why this is happening to us instead of asking how we can get through this together?
   It's true that the pandemic didn't strike with the same intensity across all fifty states.  I live in New York, the hardest hit state in the Union.  Governor Cuomo, in his daily address, praises New Yorkers for taking this pandemic seriously.  As he points out, he couldn't possibly mandate that several million New Yorkers voluntarily stay home from work, wear masks when in public, and only go out for essentials.  We chose to do those things.  And, as a result, we have lowered the growth of the Pandemic in our state to a near-plateau.  There are fewer deaths, fewer new cases.  We have overcome the enemy!
   Now, we're poised for Phase One of the re-opening plan.  Half the regions in New York are now beginning, slowly, to return to some semblance of normalcy.  Why, next weekend, Memorial Day Weekend, our beaches on Lake Ontario will be open!  Last week it snowed, and next week we can go swimming, theoretically.   My fear is that the relaxing of the quarantine guidelines will result in a resurgence of this disease.  Cuomo speaks of "tightening the valve," of watching the numbers, and reacting accordingly.  If new cases, deaths, and hospitalizations go up, we will tighten up on the social distancing.  This is a cautious, measured approach.  Testing will be a key factor in how smoothly we can fully re-open our state.
   Meanwhile in Washington, the man in the White House has suggested that the U.S. has more cases of COVID19 because we are testing more people.  His solution:  Stop testing, and the number of cases will go down!  As of Friday, he has fired the fifth member of his administration who holds some form of accountability over him and his people.  The Republican Party stands by and watches him dismantle our system of checks and balances.  Are they even asking why?   I see this as a parallel to the logic of our mothers and fathers while in a crisis:  It's not why, but how we deal with this situation.  Whether it be pandemic or political chaos, our approach should be the same.  Seek truth. Listen deeply.  Find a way to control the outbreak.  And do it.  Not asking why, but how.  How can we eradicate the disease that reigns in our government?
   Vote.

 

Grieving the Loss of Experience

 

   COVID19 rages on.  I live in Western New York, where the number of cases and deaths continues to rise, although the New York City area has plateaued.  I continue to keep my twice-daily statistics.  It's interesting to watch the various columns either forge ahead in numbers, or plateau, sometimes evening out altogether.  Some states are thinking of re-opening, but most believe it's far too early to consider doing that.  As a result, our economies world-wide have stopped dead in their tracks.  Even hospitals are beginning layoffs and pay cuts to the very people who are putting themselves on the line every day, trying to save each and every life that they can.
   We grieve the loss of friends and family.  We grieve the loss of the school year, graduations, jobs, and opportunities.  We grieve the loss of long-planned vacations, adventures, trips abroad.  As I consider the heavy losses of human life, I wonder:  is it OK to grieve the loss of experience?
    My husband and I are retired.  We had plans to go to New York City in March to meet up with friends, go to a concert, and generally hang out and visit with people we haven't seen in a while.  That was cancelled.  We had plans to go to Canada, to visit our family there.  We often go up and spend a night, visiting various family members on both days.  That was cancelled.  We had plans to make our international trip for the year, in June:  England (visiting family), Scotland, and Russia.  That was cancelled.
    But the experience that was cancelled today was the hardest loss of all:  every year the New York State Art Teachers' Association spends a full week in the Adirondack wilderness, taking part in the Summer Institute.  We live and work at Great Camp Sagamore, one of the beautiful Great Camps of the Adirondacks, formerly the "summer camp" of the Vanderbilt family.   It has been wonderfully restored and is now an educational facility.  We live in community with 50 artists/educators, taking part in numerous art projects that span many media - watercolor, acrylic, pencil, fiber arts, print making, photography, sculpture, environmental sculpture, puppetry, paper-making...the list goes on and on.  We have an astronomer and a naturalist who come every year to teach us the stories of the constellations (using a Celestron telescope on land, and with the naked eye in the middle of a lake from canoes at night), and to teach us about the flora and fauna of the pristine wilderness.  We live in the cabins and lodges that the Vanderbilts "roughed it" in.  We eat in the dining hall that still rings with the stories and songs of history.  There is a beautiful, freezing-cold lake there for swimming, boating, and fishing.  It's an amazing place for the spirit and the mind.  I have attended the art Summer Institute for ten years, my husband for nine years.  The core people and leadership remain stable from year to year, and have become a tightly-knit community.  Last year we gave up our spots in order to go to Alaska.  We were so excited to return this coming summer.

   Today's e-mail from our leaders confirmed what we feared was coming:  due to the Corona Virus, the Summer Institute, and I presume all of Great Camp Sagamore's programs, are cancelled.  Full stop.
   In the grand scheme of things, when lives are lost, jobs vaporize, the economy is  at a standstill, and the stock market swings wildly, is it OK to grieve the loss of our beloved summer experience?  I believe so.  This is not a matter of life or death, but it is a lifeline for those for whom it was created, teachers.  Not only is the Summer Institute professional development, but it's also a place for the restoration of the soul.  To be in the wilderness, for some, is a brand-new experience.  There are at least three generations of teachers there each summer, and I believe it may be nearly four generations now.  We encourage each other, nourish each other, learn together, live together, and now we will cry together, across the miles.  For this is a great loss.

   Over the years, my husband and I have attended a number of events at Great Camp Sagamore, such as the annual Mountain Music and Dance Weekend in the fall.  We've gotten to know two distinct groups of people, all artists or musicians, and the phenomenal staff that keeps such an historical treasure running.  What will happen to them now?  Will the music weekend also be cancelled?
   We live in a time of unparalleled uncertainly on so many levels.  My way of coping with the loss of the known and familiar is to process it through the five senses.  This can be done not only in the present, but also through memory, as a kind of meditation.
    What did I hear that day?  The wind sighing in the hemlocks.
    What did I see that day?  A barn full of artists, creating, learning, laughing, talking together.
    What did I touch that day?  The strings of a dulcimer.  The smooth wood of my Irish harp.
    What did I smell that day?  The wonderful aroma of hot cedars, hemlocks, and pines, as the summer sun turns the forest floor into incense.
    What did I taste that day?  S'mores, made by adults around a campfire, for some for the very first time.
    How did I experience space that day?  I looked upon the dawn breaking over a mountain lake, and heard the cry of a loon, far, far away, down at the other end of the misty waters.

    "Time it was, and what a time it was, it was
     A time of innocence, a time of confidences.
     Long ago, it must be, I have a photograph.
     Preserve your memories:  They're all that's left you."
    - Paul Simon
   
 

Quarantine

Good afternoon.
   It's odd how things you daydream about sometimes come to pass, in ways you never could have expected.  During the past few years, I've actually thought that being under house arrest in my own home wouldn't be such a bad thing, if it ever came to it.  I have lots of books, art supplies, musical instruments, and a home on a Great Lake with beautiful scenery, wildlife, and flora.  I could be quite happy here!
   And then came the Quarantine.  COVID19  descended upon New York State like a jet falling from the sky:  swiftly, completely unexpected, devastating, leaving a pile of rubble and death in its wake.  We've been under state-wide quarantine for four weeks now.  In my last post, I shared some of my homegrown statistics, gathered from various official sources, of Coronavirus cases and deaths from my county, state, NYC, country, and globally.  As I look back at where my charts stopped, I am sorry to say that those data have increased exponentially at a truly terrifying rate.  As of this afternoon, here are my most recent stats:

Global Cases:                      1,978,769   Deaths:  125,196

US Cases:                                609,614  Deaths:  25,794

NY (State) Cases:                    202,208  Deaths:  10,834

New York City Cases:             110,465  Deaths:     7690

Monroe County (NY) Cases:         850  Deaths:        56

   If you refer back to my previous post, this is a huge increase.  Huge.

   Given these grim statistics, how does one cope with the enormous losses of life, jobs, food security, housing, and other issues of basic daily living?  I read a heart-breaking article this morning about the impossibility of maintaining the 6' "social distancing" space for people who share a house with many other residents.  If you're sleeping on someone else's floor with your children, there's no social distancing.  If you work two or three jobs to put food on the table and that goes away, there's no food on the table.
   And we're supposedly one of the richest nations in the world.
   Clearly, that only means, "For the rich.  For the middle class.  For the privileged."
   The human cost of this pandemic is staggering, and plays up the obvious discrepancies between the haves and the have-nots.  Ironically,  this pandemic is exploding in the prisons, detention centers, homeless shelters, and other places where America warehouses its undesirables.  And this could be the downfall of this nation:  By crowding human beings into tight spaces and denying them healthcare and adequate living arrangements, we could be skyrocketing the casualties to a point of no return.  Consider this:  Another recent article points out that the rat population world-wide is increasing, and becoming much more aggressive, due to the lack of food from restaurants and other public food sources.  Not a pretty picture!  The rats are beginning to eat their own.  And wasn't the Bubonic Plague spread, in part, through rats?
   Many people are having trouble with anxiety, depression, and insomnia during this crisis.  It's little wonder, with the information I'm sharing here.  So how do we cope with quarantine in a time of not only a health crisis in this country, but also a crisis of leadership?
   I focus on the little things.  Yes, I'm lucky - I live surrounded by water and woodlands.   I can take walks fairly free from crowds, although I do wear a mask.  I can see the beauty of spring unfold around me.  It's this that I choose to focus on, when I'm not watching multiple news channels, doing daily statistical research, and listening with incredulity to the ravings of our political "leaders."
   This afternoon I saw cherry blossoms, magnolia buds, waterfowl, and found a complete surprise:  a rustic chair built into a park, with a well-loved copy of "Anne of Green Gables" on the seat.
   There is beauty in the wreckage of our lives.
   If only we can take a mindful moment to walk away from the sorrow, the pain, the worry, and engage in our senses...
    What did I see today?      Cherry blossoms.
    What did I hear today?    Spring birdsong.
    What did I smell today?  Fresh earth, moist from recent rains.
    What did I touch today?  Pine needles.
    What did I taste today?   Half a bagel, with a shmeer.
    My husband and I often debrief our day by considering the senses, and we add another, final one:  How did I experience space today?  Walking in a forest.
     There is beauty to be found in everyday things.  It can help to heal the soul.
     For the majority of the world's population that struggles for the basics of survival, it is time to consider leveling the playing field.  What can we do to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, shelter the homeless, heal the sick? I may need to look beyond the beauty of my surroundings, and find ways to ease the sufferings of others.  What can I do?  How can I help? These are questions that I struggle with these days.  And while we are under Quarantine, there's plenty of time to think.

COVID19: By the Numbers

   I wish I could report that things are better in New York, and the US, and the world, since the last time I wrote...but that is certainly not the case.  One of the ways in which I cope with the stress of this time of quarantine is to record the statistics...a grim form of keeping a daily record of how a virus grows exponentially.  I began doing this on scrap paper, then began using a notebook.  Each day I write down the number of cases and the number of deaths, morning and afternoon, for the world (WW), New York (NY), New York City (NYC), and Monroe County (MC), also in New York State.  I glean statistics from reputable sources like the World Health Organization and the Center for Disease Control.  I triangulate them with what I see reported on news sources such as the BBC, MSNBC, CNN, and CBS.  It's remarkable how much the numbers differ, depending on the news station and time of day.  I'm sharing these as a rough collection of raw data, not as anything official.  See below for my table, which is far from perfect, and is not complete.
   Each day I tune in to Governor Andrew Cuomo's daily address to fellow New Yorkers, and to the nation.  I trust Dr. Fauci's information, but it's now too difficult for me to watch the news updates from the man who calls himself president.  I prefer truth.
   How are we coping?  How am I coping?  Locally in Rochester, NY, a group on FaceBook started streaming live musical performances every day at 6:00 p.m.  Musicians of all stripes, ages, and backgrounds have posted their contributions.  There are groups of artists all around New York State who are using technology to make art together.  My husband and I are taking walks nearly every day, and/or exercising at home with videos. We call our children and they call us. Once a week we order takeout from a favorite restaurant in our fair city.
   So far we are fine.  Our family in New York is holding together while being separate.  I keep informed while trying not to perseverate on the news every day.  Netflix movies definitely help, and The Little Theatre, our local Indie/Foreign film theatre, is now streaming some films online for free.  And of course, there are books...online, hard copy, or audible.
   One way I keep my spirits up is to make photo slideshows of past travels (all of our 2020 trips have been cancelled).  I watch these slide shows and dream...of yesterday.

Alaska, August 2019

           Unofficial COVID19 Statistical Data

WW (Worldwide)

US

NY (state)

NYC

MC (Monroe County, NY)

Date, A.M./P.M.	Location	Cases	Deaths
3/17/20 A.M.	US	4500	90
3/17/20 P.M.	US	6010	104
3/18/20 A.M.	MC	18	0
	WW	200,000	7900
	US	6100	112
	NY	1400	19
3/18/20 P.M.	MC	19	0
	US	6200	120
	NY	2382	19
3/19/20 A.M.	US	9400	152
	NY	9400	152
	MC	22	0
3/19/20 P.M.	US	10,442	152
	NY	5200	29
	MC	30	0
3/20/20 A.M.	US	14,040	152
	NY	7102	34
	MC	36	0
	WW	255,901	10,000
3/20/20 P.M.	WW	264,359	11,134
	US	15,219	201
	NY	7102	36
	MC	36	0
3/21/20 A.M.	WW	277,300	11,000
	US	20,000	201
	NY	8377	46
	MC	36	0
3/21/20 P.M.	WW	303,816	12,973
	US	24,783	307
	NY	10,000	201
	MC	46	0
3/22/20 A.M.	WW	307,045	13,000
	US	26,000	340
	NY	14,000	114
	MC	46	1
Date:  A.M./P.M.	Location	Cases	Deaths
3/22/20 P.M.	WW	310,000	14,356
	US	30,565	384
	NY	15,168	114
	NYC	9654
	MC	68	1
3/23/20 A.M.	WW	341,000
	US	35,000	470
	NY	16,887	150
	NYC	9654
	MC	68	1
3/23/20 P.M.	WW	372,000	16,300
	US	42,200	520
	NY	20,875	157
	NYC	415	10
	MC	80	2
3/24/20 A.M.	WW	380,000
	US	46,000	590
	NY	25,665	210
	NYC	14,900	125
	MC	81	2
3/24/20 P.M.	WW	415,800	18,500
	US	51,900	668
	NY	25,665	210
	NYC	15,597
	MC	106	3
3/25//20 A.M.	WW	423,000	18,500
	US	53,852	728
	NY	25,665	210
	NYC	15,597	192
	MC	118	3
3/25/20 P.M.	WW	467,351	21,168
	US	65,000	800
	NY	30,811	285
	NYC	17,856	200
	MC	121	3
3/26/20 A.M.	WW	500,542	22,334
	US	74,982	1078
	NY	37,258	385
	NYC
	MC	142	3
3/26/20 P.M.	WW	510,000	22,000
	US	85,000	1290
	NYC
Date: A.M./P.M.	Location	Cases	Deaths
	MC	184	4
3/27/20 A.M.	WW	510,000	22,000
	US	85,000	1290
	NY	40,000	500
	NYC
	MC	148	4
3/27/20 P.M.	WW	541,626	24,137
	US	93,568	1433
	NY	44,635	519
	NYC	25,398
	MC	166	4
3/28/20 A.M.	WW	629,471	28,964
	US	104,837	1711
	NY	44,635	519
	NYC
	MC	190	4
3/28/20 P.M.	WW	694,000	30,249
	US	120,000	2000
	NY	52,318	728
	NYC	26,697	450
	MC	202	5
3/29/20 A.M.	WW	700,000	30,249
	US	124,686	2191
	NY	59,513	728
	NYC	30,765	672
	MC	217	5
3/29/20 P.M.	WW	713,171	33,597
	US	135,029	33,597
	NY	59,513	728
	NYC	136,800	672
	MC	223	6
3/30/20 A.M.	WW	724,945	34,041
	US	143,000	2500
	NY	59,513	672
	NYC
	MC	223	6
3/30/20 P.M.	WW	724,945	34,041
	US	150,000	3000
	NY	66,497	2019
	NYC	36,221	914
	MC	246	6
Date:  A.M./P.M.	Location	Cases	Deaths
3/31/20 A.M.	WW	800,049	38,714
	US	164,000	3100
	NY	67,636	1224
	NYC	37,183
	MC	250	6