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Coronavirus
Hopalong:
Amen to all that, (((((Tupp))))).
At least there's encouraging news on the vaccine front. Nothing clear yet on distribution but if we can all just endure the test of these locked-in times (and mostly I think we can)....then one day we'll look back on this period as a benchmark, a threshold, and a Before and After time.
I have hope humanity will learn something from it all, and be changed in good as well as the desperate ways. But no predictions. All that will be visible and clear to future historians, I think, not to us in our lifetimes.
If there's anything that uplifts the notion of being present, Covid-19 would be it. I just revisited an old lay sermon I did on agnosticism, and was surprised to find the truth of it for me still holds. Openness. Not knowing. Trusting, despite. Focusing on the verb, which in my mind is an active practice "to DO faith[or trust]" and not to passively "HAVE ['faith' or whatever]. A lot got cleared up for me when I figured that out. Two extracts sum it up:
I have a new goal: to “do” faith [trust] rather than to “have” faith. Consider that “to place faith in” is an active choice rather than to passively “have”. It means to trust. I have come to believe at least this, which may be sounder than I know: I believe that I will do, or experience, faith, the more I choose to do, or experience, trust. The challenge for me, and perhaps for some of you too, is to trust with bravery and discernment, rather than surrender to mayhem.
As I wrote the conclusion, I remember thinking about how much time I'd spent hung up on the noun--what I should/could/could not have faith IN. The object of the sentence was really all that people argued about. Like: I believe/can't believe IN X, or y or z.
It hit me that the object of the sentence [diagramming sentences for two years] was not the point at all. (I had used an elaborate analogy about sleep to structure the talk. Agnosticism being similar to the membranous state between being awake and being allllmost asleep. Near hypnotic, come to think of it.)
....many years of being agnostic have taught me that you can’t get joy by willing it. You can’t “get” sleep at all, really. You have to allow it to get you. Maybe it’s the same as faith. As elusive and as comforting. Maybe trying to get it, as though it is an object you can grasp, is exactly what keeps it away. And maybe like the spirit of sleep, the spirit of faith has nothing to do with the objects of sentences, but only with their verbs.
hugs
Hops
Twoapenny:
Hopsie, 'do' faith (trust) instead of having it has really rung a bell with me and I am going to ponder on that and let it sink in some more. I can't say I'm feeling hopeful that humanity will learn from it but I certainly have, and I really want to keep what I've learnt in my life and allow it to shape my life from now on, rather than society's demands and my own unrealistic expectations. And perhaps as I do that I will encounter more people who have learnt from it and my faith will increase. But yes, it may well be not in our own life times. I hope there is a way to peek in and see what's happening.
I am crossing my fingers re vaccines. Not sure if son will be able to have one as they're not tested on anyone who isn't already fit and healthy so I will need to look into that more with regard to all his other problems (a friend with MS has already been advised by his doc that at this early stage him taking a vaccine wouldn't be wise). But I will certainly be there with my sleeve rolled up and was joking to a friend yesterday that this chemical concoction might be the thing that sorts me out :) If at least I know my chances of picking it up and bringing it home to him are lower that will give me some peace of mind.
New tiers will be in place when we come out of lockdown next week, with level three being the most restrictions and level one being the least. Our area is likely to be level 1, which is good, I'm just hoping they're putting things in place to stop people from other areas visiting (and what will they do about unis? Students from a high risk area home for Christmas, then going back to a low risk area, possibly infected? Don't know). But anyway, it's looking about as positive as it can just now so that's good.
Completely unrelated, but when I was feeding the birds this morning I looked up at the sky. It was still dark but the street lamps were on, very cloudy sky and there were a flock of seagulls flying overhead and the light from the street lamps caught the undersides of them so they looked as if they were glowing. They flew across a really dark, heavy cloud and I could just see these sort of glowing silhouettes gliding across the sky and it looked so beautiful. I don't know why it popped into my head, possibly because I think the thing I've really learnt because of Covid is that I like things like that more than coffee shops and department stores. When son was at college I wouldn't have been looking up, I'd have been racing through that job to get on with the next one because I'd have an endless list in my mind of what needed doing before we left that morning. I'd have missed it. That's what I don't want to get back to once all of this is over. I want my normal to be different.
Hopalong:
--- Quote ---I like things like that more than coffee shops and department stores
--- End quote ---
Oh me too, Tupp, me too! That's the mystical or poetic or even metaphysical streak right there. Should be on a blog, imo!
One of the neat things about you is how wide-ranging your mind is. Very granular and pragmatic about some things, and deeply soulful (I dunno what/if a soul is but you get the idea) about others. I like the way these qualities weave in and out of your writing.
You're a very keen observer, and that quality of attention is rare.
Hugs
Hops
Hopalong:
Opinion by Lucy Jones [Washington Post]
November 24, 2020 at 12:33 p.m. EST
Lucy Jones, a seismologist at the California Institute of Technology, is the author of “The Big Ones: How Natural Disasters Have Shaped Us (and What We Can Do About Them)” and host of the podcast “Getting Through It.”
When the upcoming holidays inspire us to take more risks and let down our guard, we are not being resentful, stupid or selfish. We are being human. But covid-19 does not care that we perceive it to be less risky — it is more dangerous than ever.
As a seismologist who has spent much of my career helping policymakers understand seismic risk, I have seen many well-meaning and intelligent people struggle to comprehend the risk they face and weigh appropriate action. Knowing the science behind how people think about risk can help us understand why the right choices are so difficult — and why we should make them anyway.
Human beings understand reality and real-world risk using two parallel systems: an experiential, intuitive approach and an analytical, deliberative approach. The experiential system is an effective tool that has enabled human beings to survive our evolution. Long before risk analysis was a science, we relied on our gut to decide whether an animal was safe to approach or food was safe to eat.
As life became more complex, we developed an analytical system — a way to calculate and weigh risk factors rationally: assessing densities, probabilities and exposure the way engineers, scientists and economists do. But doing so takes time, work and conscious thought, so the experiential risk assessment is still a major component of our psyches and our first response to any danger.
The analytical system would tell us that the risk of catching the coronavirus is directly proportional to the number of contagious people in our community — and today, the daily case rate in the United States is skyrocketing. In many communities it is now more than 10 times what it was in April, meaning that any activity that we do now is also 10 times more dangerous than it was in April. But it doesn’t feel that way, and the psychology of how people perceive risk gives us two reasons for that.
First, we are always more afraid of things we do not understand. Early man could not protect himself from a danger he didn’t see or comprehend, so a perception of uncertainty increases our perception of risk.
In April, we did not know definitively how covid-19 was transmitted, how likely we were to die if we got it or whether it was going to be treatable. Because we know more now, the disease seems less frightening. Even though we now know that masks are the best protection, we may be less likely to wear one because we don’t feel as much at risk.
Second, our experiential system is tied to our emotions — whether something feels good or bad. We “rely on our gut” or think that something just doesn’t feel right. But these emotions mean that something we see as good, we also see as safe. Controlled studies have shown that even experts who have studied a particular risk will evaluate an exposure as safer if it has been tied to a significant emotional benefit.
Right now, after months of being in isolation, we are highly aware of the benefit of social interaction. Being with family for Thanksgiving has such a large upside that we are unable to appreciate the risk that doing so really poses. Seeing your parents now is much more likely to kill them than it would have been in April. But because it holds such benefit to both them and us, our gut just can’t agree.
Similarly, the benefits of not wearing masks — being able to see someone else’s face, the emotional benefit of that nonverbal connection with others — makes not wearing a mask seem less dangerous than it is. Notice how many public figures wear a mask but take it off to speak. The act of speaking makes your breath much more dangerous, but we discount the extra risk because of the benefits of a better social connection.
The third wave of the covid-19 pandemic is upon us just as the holidays beckon. We’re hearing a lot about pandemic fatigue, shutdown rebellions and pervasive resentment. In the same way we think that the obesity epidemic can be fixed by people just eating less, we’re blaming people for not having the character or willpower to just wear masks and self-isolate.
Instead of blaming the victims, we should try to understand why people behave the way they do. Well-meaning and intelligent people struggle to understand the hazards they face and weigh appropriate action.
But even as we recognize the difficulty, we need to use our rational minds to tell our gut to behave. Stay away from your family during the holidays so everyone will still be alive in the spring.
Bettyanne:
Im in San francisco with my daughter Meghan......she drove me down along with her fiancé Jared after Bill died.....but now the covid is back doing its thing which I guess never stopped. I am afraid to fly or take train back up to Seattle......and then ferry to Bainbridge Island, WA
I hope your all doing as well as can possible be at this time???
I don't know what to say.....never in my life of 77 years do I remember anything this bad......
Stay well and safe friends......keep a good distance away and wear masks.
Love,
Bettyanne
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