Exposure

I started writing this entry back in May but haven't touched it since May 17th. If this country was lurching uneasily into the future before May, by summer everything had definitely gone sideways. And my frustration has definitely morphed into paralysis.

At that time, I was still working from home. My wife, a teacher, was still working from home. My older son had just finished his sophmore college year from home. My younger son had just graduated from high school with classes from home but an actual ceremony at the Pensacola Civic Center.

It was the first time I had seen the inside of the Civic Center since February when the building housed the Vendor Floor and Artist Alley for Pensacon. Even on February 29th I was still nervous about being in large crowds, but nobody was physically distant at the time, and wearing masks was absolutely out of the question since we were told the masks were in short supply and any masks we bought and used were masks that were unavailable to nurses and doctors. And it would still be a month before the April Fool's Day when I joked in the morning that Governor Ron DeSantis was finally taking the pandemic seriously and in the afternoon he actually accounced limited statewide restrictions to slow the spread of Covid-19.

So while the unemployment rate reaches 14.7% and millions have lost their income, the number of people under this roof with jobs has increased by one. The younger son has started working at a business that didn't exist before coronovirus swept this nation. He is working at a drive-in theater that didn't exist in April. The operation is built around two inflatable screens and hastily spraypainted lines on the ground. My son is directing traffic, connecting speakers and delivering food orders at the Pensacola Fairground. All the workers wear masks, but I still fear that he will contract the virus. But he's also getting exposure by meeting entertainment professionals in the area that are also working at the drive in. He'll have references and connections for future theatrical opportunities. He's learning about wages and paychecks and banking and routing numbers. He's discovering that he enjoys the hand-on work of electrical systems and he's really good at it. He was also exposed on his last day working there to a rave, including some unexpected nudity, recreational drug use, and even an overdose as the ambulance was called to the Fairgrounds to respond to an emergency. He was shaken by what he saw but horrors exist in the world and nobody can pretend them out of existence.

But I still think about what "exposure" means. So much of this universe is unknown to humanity. Just over five years ago we did not know that the planet Pluto had a "heart" waiting to be discovered. Much of America had not experienced the prevalence of violence directed and Black people until the brutality was exposed in a series of videos that kept coming starting in early May with the revelation of the video showing the death of Ahmaud Aubrey and escalating with two disgusting videos over Memorial Day weekend. Exposure means the introduction of the novel and potentially unexpected to a given audience.

Some exposure, like to a deadly virus, is harmful. Some exposure, like to entertainment professsionals that appreciate your enthusiasm and creativity, is beneficial. And some exposure, like police reliance on tear gas and rubber bullets to attack protestors and reporters, is hopefully leading to changes in how cops interact with citizens.

Regardless, exposure means everything changes after that point.