I'm writing this blog because I can neither sleep nor relax. I'm filling my days with food and games and other ephemera that will mean nothing after I die.
I worry because I have health problems that make my death more likely if I fall sick. But here in Florida, so many people are acting like this disease cannot touch them. I don't envy their sense of invulnerability because if I were similarly reckless, I would be sick in short order.
Only weeks ago I was attending Pensacon with huge crowds to see "Weird" Al Yankovic and the cast of TRON and visit the dealer floor packed full of people. I drove to Mobile, Alabama to participate in a card game tournament and did rather well. I visited Arety's Angels because it had looked closed when I had driven by weeks ago. I considered going to see "Onward" the day before the cinemas closed entirely. Hell, I almost drove over to New Orleans and Mardi Gras only a few hours away. The whole time, in the back of my head I knew that the virus was spreading across the globe. But it was in China and in Italy and on a few cruise ships. I believed that the technological and scientific prowess of this nation would soon be targetting this threat and keeping us safe. Because we're America and we can do the impossible.
Other nations showed us very quickly that ignoring the threat was deadly. Testing and tracking the virus needed to be done early and often to prevent spread by asymptomatic carriers. Asking people to please stay home was worthless; they had to be ordered home and every possible public distraction shuttered. But without an immediate danger, this country failed to act. Our country responded similar to a teenager who thinks about saving money for the future. There is no penalty in failing to act today. Only later does the teenager realize that they cannot save what they need in the time they have left. By the time the future arrives, it is too late.
This country also chose inaction. We assumed that our leaders were receiving the most accurate information with the most carefully considered contigencies laid out before them by experts. But leaders didn't want to stop the party. So rather that shouting, "Last call" and sending everyone home, our leaders told us again that the parties and the beaches and the bars were open for business and to live it up. (See Isaiah 22:13)
So I'm recording my thoughts about my life in these months because the world is about to change. It's not just the disease and the death, but that will traumatize every generation alive today. Parents and grandparents and even siblings and progeny will perish alone and afraid. Loved ones will inadequately grieve because there will be no funerals where we can gather to mourn. Will families believe that the departed are truly deceased if they never see the body? That is the emotional landscape that we are pushing humanity into because we trusted leaders and neighbors that failed to overcome selfishness and pride and hubris.
The economic disaster will take at least a decade to unwind. Our next president (or two) will have an unenviable task. That president won't be leading this country or the world to a greater future. That person will be dragging us back to where we were before this catastrophe cratered the financial system and destroyed most of our businesses and industries and jobs.
Only weeks ago I was attending Pensacon with huge crowds to see "Weird" Al Yankovic and the cast of TRON and visit the dealer floor packed full of people. I drove to Mobile, Alabama to participate in a card game tournament and did rather well. I visited Arety's Angels because it had looked closed when I had driven by weeks ago. I considered going to see "Onward" the day before the cinemas closed entirely. Hell, I almost drove over to New Orleans and Mardi Gras only a few hours away. The whole time, in the back of my head I knew that the virus was spreading across the globe. But it was in China and in Italy and on a few cruise ships. I believed that the technological and scientific prowess of this nation would soon be targetting this threat and keeping us safe. Because we're America and we can do the impossible.
Other nations showed us very quickly that ignoring the threat was deadly. Testing and tracking the virus needed to be done early and often to prevent spread by asymptomatic carriers. Asking people to please stay home was worthless; they had to be ordered home and every possible public distraction shuttered. But without an immediate danger, this country failed to act. Our country responded similar to a teenager who thinks about saving money for the future. There is no penalty in failing to act today. Only later does the teenager realize that they cannot save what they need in the time they have left. By the time the future arrives, it is too late.
This country also chose inaction. We assumed that our leaders were receiving the most accurate information with the most carefully considered contigencies laid out before them by experts. But leaders didn't want to stop the party. So rather that shouting, "Last call" and sending everyone home, our leaders told us again that the parties and the beaches and the bars were open for business and to live it up. (See Isaiah 22:13)
So I'm recording my thoughts about my life in these months because the world is about to change. It's not just the disease and the death, but that will traumatize every generation alive today. Parents and grandparents and even siblings and progeny will perish alone and afraid. Loved ones will inadequately grieve because there will be no funerals where we can gather to mourn. Will families believe that the departed are truly deceased if they never see the body? That is the emotional landscape that we are pushing humanity into because we trusted leaders and neighbors that failed to overcome selfishness and pride and hubris.
The economic disaster will take at least a decade to unwind. Our next president (or two) will have an unenviable task. That president won't be leading this country or the world to a greater future. That person will be dragging us back to where we were before this catastrophe cratered the financial system and destroyed most of our businesses and industries and jobs.
