Something always happens.

At first, hanging around the house trying to stay out of COVID’s way, it felt as if I was reading a book, day a chapter. I went to bed anxious and curious about what would happen. Each day, I tried to distract myself with projects, enthusiastically painting, and staining things like outdoor furniture and the deck. I tasked myself with a daily creative endeavor and vowed to walk 30 minutes. I puzzled. I cleaned things I didn't want to clean. Instead of buying plants at the nursery, I filled every pot I had and planted seeds of all sorts so I could use the time to monitor their growth. Cooking creatively became a purposeful diversion. I made it a point to call someone daily or at least every other day to try to stay social and make sure they were healthy. I gave myself chores and goals; kept numbered lists checking off accomplishments and kept the lists in order for periodic review. Good job, me. I had lists tracking the numbers of cases and deaths in select countries, states, counties, and cities. I was scared and stressed out about the virus but often woke up invigorated with the prospect of getting something done without leaving the driveway. Getting something done gave me some control. Maybe because I am recently retired, I also thought, and certainly hoped, my house arrest would end quickly and all this "free time" would end with it. 

Now it’s August. So far, there have been over 160,000 COVID deaths just in the US. I am still anxious and curious as to what will happen but I’m really ready for this book to come to a conclusion. I am learning to live with the changes the virus has forced many of us to make. I am lucky. Being retired and living in my own home I keep busy and I have a good idea how to keep safe. It seems the biggest dilemma of this virus is that not everyone can do that and that not everyone wants to. 

Something will happen. In spite of ourselves, most of us will get through COVID. Maybe we get a vaccine by early next year. Maybe like distracted drivers, assault weapons, heart disease, cancer, old age, etcetera, etcetera, it will become just another deadly nuisance. In any event, the COVID cloud that affects the entire planet has somehow shined a light on other more significant problems that most of us are aware of (and have been) but never want to confront. Indivisible? In the US there’s nationwide historic anger so pervasive and so divisive that as big as the COVID crisis is, it has not brought us together at all. Justice? Racial injustices have, yet again, been brought to the surface in a way that this time will not be pushed back under the rug. And as the world tries to recover from the COVID economic jolt, I bet it won’t be long until the unconscionable division between the very rich and the rest of us, in some way, is reconciled. It’s a 9/11 moment. Big changes should come. It will be interesting to see if we can come together to begin the work toward meaningful changes necessary for the good of the species and the planet. 

There are a lot of elections to watch right now. With what's going on in our local elections it looks to me like people are starting to get engaged. It also looks like it's getting ugly. We live in a very red part of the state and there are only republicans running in the primary. It's getting heated, to say the least.