This Too Shall Pass

This Too Shall Pass–hopefully with as little additional loss to life as possible, given the circumstances and our present pathetic democidal leadership.

 

(Wikipedia definition: Democide is the murder of any person or people by their government, including genocide, politicide, and mass murder. … Rummel created the term democide for this third meaning.)

 

I’m so into acceptance of the stay-at-home order that a month from now seems entirely do-able to me. I’ve gone through all the earlier phases of grief and feel pretty comfortable (although not happy) sitting out this pandemic a little longer (or for as long as it takes, actually).

 

I know other people are going stir-crazy but I have enough remaining tasks here at home to feel okay about staying in longer.

 

Jackie and I are going to have parts of this place remodeled as soon as we can get workmen in here safely to do that. So, I have to keep purging stuff that I don’t plan to use or cherish for the rest of my life, whether I remain here or move to another country.

 

I need to get into the storage area of the garage and go through plastic bins full of archival and other material and decide what to keep and what to toss out. I don’t think it will take more than a day but the recycle bin is already packed full so I have to wait until it’s emptied (a week from tomorrow) before I can get busy again refilling it…

 

The Future Post-Lock Down

 

This evening I began to look toward the future post-lock down. One of the first things I looked into was the update on the Lakewood Playhouse, one of my favorite haunts several times every year.

 

John Munn, Managing Director, just did a 10-minute update that was almost as enjoyable to watch as the plays the Playhouse puts on every year. He’s an ebullient personality when he presents anything… full of fun and mischief.

 

I imagine he’s a blast to work with as an actor and managing director, although he has copped to being susceptible to depression, as a great many creative people are. (I was susceptible earlier in life but have worked out a solution that works most of the time.) I am always sending him healing thoughts, every time he crosses my mind, because the world needs people like John Munn in it!

 

John is such a breath of fresh air. He’s exciting to listen to, and the plays he elects to do are always well-executed with top-notch local talent.

 

I worked in Hollywood for almost 15 years and attended quite a few plays down there with Actors Equity actors and noted personalities (including Patrick Stewart, Walter Koenig and Mark Lenard) and what I see at Lakewood Playhouse rivals (and more often than not exceeds) every play I saw in Tinsel Town.

 

Lisa and I are already planning trips to Owen Beach and other places when the all clear (or mostly clear) goes out and we’re free to live life again as unfettered as we can under the “new normal.”

 

I very much doubt we will soon forget, or ever take for granted again, our ability to go places and visit friends, family and other loved ones.  But I also know that tens of thousands of Americans families (and hence, millions of people) have lost loved ones. These hurting, bereft souls will remain forever in my heart and mind.

 

They’ve lost (knock on wood) so much more than the rest of us have or will. We’ve lost our freedom to live life unfettered, but they’ve lost loved ones who can never be replaced in one of the most horrible ways possible, unable to sit by their bedside, or visit, or even have a funeral for them when they passed.  Every aspect of their lives since this year began has been one gut punch after the other…

 

That’s why I understand how crucial it is to listen to the scientists, doctors and first responders. The people on the front lines are witnessing firsthand, hour after dreadful hour, the human cost of this deadly virus-with-no-cure, and they are pretty much screaming for people to stay at home so they don’t become even more overwhelmed by the carnage they’re seeing (and experiencing themselves as their coworkers catch it and fall victim), carnage they are pretty much helpless to mitigate against or offer hope for until a vaccine is developed to ward it off.

 

These are life-savers watching lives slip through their fingers. It’s excruciating to them, as it should be to each of us who can do something about it simply by obeying orders to stay home and stay safe.  The inconveniences that were put in place to keep us safe from dying is a small price to pay to keep as many of us alive as possible.

 

This too shall pass. I just want it to pass with as few people passing right along with it!

 

Stay home. Limit travel. Save lives. (If you don’t, you can be passing the virus along to others without knowing it. You can have and pass it without having symptoms! It’s invisible!)

 

Wash your hands. Cough and sneeze into your elbow. Pretend you’re carrying COVID-19 the way Typhoid Mary carried typhoid in the early 20th Century. She was asymptomatic, too…