Cover Up---Open Up---What's Up---Rise Up

warp speed

the mascot of the US testing program

   And now we are to understand we've become further divided. Wearing masks, or not. Opening up, even beyond recommendations or not. 

    I've drawn my line in the sand. This virus will not end, we must learn to live with it, wisely. 

    Until and if there is a vaccine or treatment we must pursue testing and contact tracing to give us the tools to keep people healthy and alive while also bringing a global economy back to life. They go hand in hand. To act otherwise is foolish, and dangerous. 

    There is no solution without a cost. Contact tracing runs us close to boundaries of privacy and personal security, so it must be handled wisely. But it must be done if we want to resurrect a way of life and earning that resembles what we've come to know as normal. Tracing is predicated on testing. It is embarrassing, humiliating and revealing how the US has failed at implementing testing. Even with both, we cannot expect a quick return to a vibrant economy. 
    The executive branch has failed miserably, ignoring warnings, firing key personnel, having not a clue about strategic reserve, and acting like amateurs. Because of that a total shutdown was a panic button response. It will take a lot to reignite the economy and even more to repair the damage.

second looks

creativity rocks

   Musicians, visual artists, performance artists, journalists and writers have been a shinning light in the pandemic darkness. Their efforts, while not as heroic as medical workers, are up there with grocery personnel, first responders, mail and delivery drivers and have provided immense service.
    Show hosts, news reporters and entourage casts have found a way to work around the logistic nightmare of not being in studios or being able to work together. 
    Saturday Night Live has delivered 3 at home programs that have been increasingly more sophisticated, tight and entertaining. Sam Bee and Bill Maher, working from their homes have continued their cutting edge satire. John Oliver has continued his deep dive into absurdity, corruption and failure. Seth Myers, Stephen Colbert, Conan O'Brien and Jimmy Fallon have continued to find ways to make lock down fatigued citizens laugh. 
      Musical artists have been extraordinary, working sans studio and bandmates. 
      There has been much to be immensely disturbed and worried about, but the artistic soul, expressed in myriad ways, should give us all a lot of hope.

aspirational behavior

     The same can be said of church and faith groups as well. They've found ways via Zoom, Facebook, Youtube and other streaming technologies to tend to the human soul, and provide pastoral care and succor.

      Teachers and parents have done admirable work in continuing education against extraordinary challenge.

      Millions of us have found a way through this historic passage. It is only human to long for "the way it used to be," but we've bucked up. Now is not a time to let impatience, idiocy, or selfishness set us back.

       There was a classic photo and commentary making the rounds. Protestors clamoring for a full reopening, not observing social distance, not wearing masks facing medical professionals, who have seen the worst of it, wearing masks and calling for reason. Someone noted the unmasked angry, some even with guns, cared only about themself, the masked, and socially distanced, cared about everyone.

       We deserve better than the selfish. We deserve better than their role model. 

rocks of ages

      

   Last year's visit to Scotland and Ireland put us in places that have withstood all life has to give, and have done so for centuries. Some even took over a century to build. 
    They've withstood plagues, fires, wars, including World Wars with bombing attacks, revolutionary change in culture, and attitude. Future changing history occurred in some of them. Generations have come and gone. They remain, like rocks for the ages.
     Regardless of your belief, these frames offer a sense of permanence, and the ability to endure and survive. They represent the heights of human skill, creativity, imagination and a sense of connection to the sacredness of life.
   

    Humankind can endure. We have it within us to be wise, and capable. It is ours to choose.

     Take care of each other.

      See you down the trail.

INTO THE VALLEY and KATE MCKINNON AS Rx

   Time and energy is spent, being angry, worrying about being angry, getting active or worrying about getting active. We'll get to that, but first a deep breath and a quick road trip to clear the head.

 To Californians who have suffered 5 years of drought, green is a precious color and soothing. Please indulge these few frames from scenic Highway 46, the Green Valley Road. 

    In the early days it was a dirt mountain trail. Paved in the 1930s, it was a connecter from the Pacific Coast east to Paso Robles. The modern highway was built in 1970.

   The connection with Highway 1, aka Pacific Coast Highway, is 1 mile southeast of Cambria and about a mile from the Pacific Ocean, visible from the crest over the Santa Lucia Mountains coastal range. 

     We drive the highway all the time and never tire of its beauty, even more spectacular in the green season.

    As along Highway 1 and the 101 there are patches of the old roads and stage coach trails still visible.

   It is hard to be angry when absorbing the beauty, or when breathing deeply. 

    Thich Nhat Hahn, a Vietnamese monk, wrote Living Buddha Living Christ and tells of an easy deep breathing exercise that anyone can do. Sit quietly, still your mind and breathe in, thinking only about your breath and then exhale while smiling. Repeat the action a few times. You will find yourself relaxed, feeling better and less angry. If you wish to go deeper, begin with the deep breath and smiling exhale, then breath in again thinking only about the moment of your breath and then exhale thinking about how lovely the moment is. It is an ancient and healthy technique. It can't hurt you, but anger can!

    It is like an epidemic and in conversation everywhere. I've been surprised at how angry so many of us are, present company included. We understand why and in that is a modicum of strength. So many millions of American livid about the political reality and the man who is the toxic pathology of it. It is an historic revulsion and as in medical diagnosis it is a symptom of something ill in the body. In this case the body politic is reacting and warning us. 

    Unprecedented in our lives. The closest thing we may recall, those of us of certain age, were the mass movements of the civil rights era and the struggle to end the Vietnam war. For younger Americans there was the brief flicker of the Occupy movement. 

    It has been a while since so many have been so politically active-writing letters, e-mails, making calls, going to huddles, talking about direct actions and marching. It is a season of caring and politics and we should take care to remain focused.

COMIC RELIEF IS GOOD AND WE HAVE A QUEEN

     Bravo to Kate McKinnon of Saturday Night Live. As the American political horror show has progressed, McKinnon has made us laugh with cunning craft, skill and a rapier comedic genius.

      The 33 year old Columbia grad did a "spot-on" Hillary Clinton. But since the debacle she has done masterful take downs of Kellyanne Conway, destined to be hall of fame bits. 

      Just this last week she did another lethal job on Conway, turning her into a Fatal Attraction parody of Glen Close as a crazed stalker going after CNN's Jake Tapper. She also played the Attorney General Jefferson Sessions and just to show she can inflict bipartisan comedy, McKinnon did a number embodying Elizabeth Warren's zeal all in one show. She is an extraordinary talent and that talent is helping millions of Americans laugh and that is especially good.  

  See you down the trail.