Living Through Grief and Sorrow, Caring for Others, The Flood is Coming
"In times of grief and sorrow, I will hold you and rock you and take your grief and make it my own. When you cry, I cry, and when you hurt, I hurt. And together, we will try to hold back the floods to tears and despair and make it through the potholed street of life."
Good morning, you look well, how did you sleep, I slept great. The coffee is on the counter, grab a cup, and sit whilst I make this soup.
Friday or as I like to say the end of work week two in our new reality. Did anyone see this coming, was it on anyone's radar? I was watching a podcast last night, and one of the guests had a text from 2/15/20 that said we should begin self-isolating. The sender had been translating Chinese documents, she knew, but if she had spoken out, we would have laughed.
I spoke to a client yesterday; he has asthma, his son is special needs, they began isolating about 20 days ago, way before anyone else. He is concerned about the triage situation; according to him, his son would not get the treatment he would need if things go bad. He is also the CTO for a major health company, his insight was dark, bleak, for the good of humanity. I'll keep his comments to myself.
We are very fortunate to be where we are. We are in paradise; we have adequate food, water, shelter, and as of the writing of these words, we are all healthy. I'm not worried about us, we will survive, but I'm now convinced that I will lose people I love before this is over. I've never had this thought before, yes, everyone dies, but not like this. Please stop going outside, stay home, let's see how this plays out, it is not wise to associate with other humans not knowing where they have been or whom they have connected.
My typical day is as follows. I get up at 6:00 a.m., pen my thoughts, then clean up email, by 8:00 I'm on the phone or on Zoom for a meeting, and then the rest of the day is filled with virtual meetings with clients and webinars to glean new information. We do take an hour walk around the top of the mountain; the kids walk ahead, my Queen and I walk together, talking through our new reality.
New Orleans is now a hot spot; it seems Carnival, where thousands of people were hugging, sharing cups, and socially making soup, has not been a good move. I watched a video from a nurse yesterday; she had just used the last ventilator on one of her patients. Her voice was shaky; she stated: "We are now tasked with picking who gets to live and who dies."
Damn Anson, do you have any good news? Well yes, I do, when this is over, and I don't want to guess a time frame, I think Easter is a silly estimate. I think if we all self-isolate, we could maybe reconvene in July. I think July fourth could be the beginning of our reconnection. The economy will be in shambles, the government cannot stop this freight train, imagine the world is a computer, and someone just hit reset.
Here is the good news, when the pandemic ends, and it will end, we will have a new appreciation for each other, there will be a flattening of wealth, those who have will have, but they will have less. Those that survive on little will begin to understand the value of savings and survival. Politics will be in the rearview mirror. Regan warned us, if an enemy took on the world, we would come together. We are just now starting to see this reality, humans vs. an invisible monster; we must win.
My heart is filled with joy, love, and happiness. This is a test, a test we all needed. Many will pass, a few will fail, but when the test is over, society will improve. We were taking a lot for granted, we thought we were in control, and Mother Nature slapped us and said: "not so fast."
Today one of our clan, one of our five "family" members at the house, is celebrating a birthday. We're going to have a party for him; his real family is back in Indiana, we are borrowing him and his sister until this ends. I would like to thank Jay and Angie for sharing their kids with us; we will take care of these two, worry not.
Well, time for me to go. Thank you for stopping by the free internet soup café. I apologize for my dark thoughts, but I think the more we can embrace a worst-case scenario, the higher the chance we have to make it through this natural gauntlet. I pray for the people in need, hurting, alone, and in fear. I'm not in fear, I'm an optimistic fellow, but others don't or can't share my views. Keep your eye on your fellow humans; if you see someone in need, provide help in whatever form you can. It's time we wake up; this is the nightmare Stephen King has written about so many times, we are living through a biblical event. The flood is coming, and it just started to drizzle. It's time to begin building your boat.
"In times of grief and sorrow, I will hold you and rock you and take your grief and make it my own. When you cry, I cry, and when you hurt, I hurt. And together, we will try to hold back the floods to tears and despair and make it through the potholed street of life."