I was listening to the writer Chuck Klosterman on a podcast the other day, and he was talking about how when this pandemic is final over – like, really over – there is going to be a spate of human interest stories about parents of young children feeling voids in lives because their kids are no longer with them 24/7. I think this is spot on, because I can tell I’m going to be one of those parents. As much as I want everything to go back to normal, as much as my children drive me insane (and they do drive me insane), I genuinely cherish the extra time we have together now. I know there is going to be a weird sadness in my life when they go back to school.
And when will that be?
Who knows?
Your guess is as good as mine, but my guess is that here in DC school will start next fall as usual. I don’t know if it should or not, but unless things go really badly in the places that are already opening up now, I don’t think we have it in us as a city to hold out past that. In general, my hunch is that everywhere is going to open up too early, from a public health standpoint, and then places are going to shut back down piecemeal if they are hotspots of resurgence. This won’t really work, because the damage will already be done by the time one area decides to shut down again, and the virus will already be passed on to the next place. We are going to carry on in this way -- flare-ups and shutdowns -- until we develop a treatment/vaccine or we build up herd immunity, neither of which is likely to happen anytime soon. The result is going to be a lot of unnecessary death and sickness.
I hope I'm wrong. I could be. That’s always a possibility. It’s not out of the question that people and businesses will social distance even if there aren’t any official guidelines in place. You see photos of people in a crowded bar in Wisconsin, but that’s probably because the ban just lifted, and it’s also probably a one-off political statement (albeit a stupid one). I doubt that's how that bar will look on a Thursday afternoon once the newness wears off and the cameras go away. It's possible enough people will be safety-conscious on their own – either out of fear of catching the disease or out of social pressure – to keep things leveled off. The result will be a lot of unnecessary death and sickness, but less than it would be otherwise.
One reason why this more optimistic scenario could come to bear is that it is in every person's own immediate and obvious self-interest not to get infected. It's easy to delude yourself that something like climate change is a fake crisis because nobody is going to personally get sick and die of climate change in the next few weeks. It's a lot harder to do this for something like the coronavirus that can affect you unquestionably and quickly. This is why the overwhelming majority of people support quarantine in some form, and why the governors who have responded most aggressively are the most popular right now. There's a scene in the movie Dallas Buyers Club (didn't love it, but it had its moments), when Matthew McConaughey's character is first diagnosed with HIV, and he's in denial about it, telling his friend that's it's all a bunch of BS, and his friend says to him, "What if it ain't?" And that's a question that might keep even most skeptics in line. "What if it ain't?" We shall see.
In other news, my boys and I all got haircuts since my last entry. It went pretty well. S ordered a decent set of clippers online, and then after that, it's really just picking what guard you want. The kids' cuts look fine, but you can clearly tell they were done at home by amateurs. They're just buzz cuts; they're not cute. I mean, they are, because they're on my kids, but they're not fashionably styled like they are when we go to cartoon cuts. They're not kid chic. Also, we messed up at first, so Lil' S2 has a patch on the back of his head that's cut nearly to the skin. S meant to use a three guard, but instead she used a one guard (3 mm), so it took off much more than we wanted. No biggie. It's in the back, and he's four, so he couldn't care less.
My cut, on the other hand, looks almost the exact same as it does when I get it done by a professional. I doubt anybody could tell it apart unless they really studied the edges, which nobody ever does. This begs the question: When quarantine is over, will I have S cut my hair for me all the time? Probably not. It's just easier to give somebody $25 and be done with it. Plus, I feel miserly when I do shit like that on my own. I feel like, if you can afford to pay somebody to cut your hair, then you should pay somebody to cut your hair. But that's just me.
Anyway, that's enough for now.
Until next time...
And when will that be?
Who knows?
Your guess is as good as mine, but my guess is that here in DC school will start next fall as usual. I don’t know if it should or not, but unless things go really badly in the places that are already opening up now, I don’t think we have it in us as a city to hold out past that. In general, my hunch is that everywhere is going to open up too early, from a public health standpoint, and then places are going to shut back down piecemeal if they are hotspots of resurgence. This won’t really work, because the damage will already be done by the time one area decides to shut down again, and the virus will already be passed on to the next place. We are going to carry on in this way -- flare-ups and shutdowns -- until we develop a treatment/vaccine or we build up herd immunity, neither of which is likely to happen anytime soon. The result is going to be a lot of unnecessary death and sickness.
I hope I'm wrong. I could be. That’s always a possibility. It’s not out of the question that people and businesses will social distance even if there aren’t any official guidelines in place. You see photos of people in a crowded bar in Wisconsin, but that’s probably because the ban just lifted, and it’s also probably a one-off political statement (albeit a stupid one). I doubt that's how that bar will look on a Thursday afternoon once the newness wears off and the cameras go away. It's possible enough people will be safety-conscious on their own – either out of fear of catching the disease or out of social pressure – to keep things leveled off. The result will be a lot of unnecessary death and sickness, but less than it would be otherwise.
One reason why this more optimistic scenario could come to bear is that it is in every person's own immediate and obvious self-interest not to get infected. It's easy to delude yourself that something like climate change is a fake crisis because nobody is going to personally get sick and die of climate change in the next few weeks. It's a lot harder to do this for something like the coronavirus that can affect you unquestionably and quickly. This is why the overwhelming majority of people support quarantine in some form, and why the governors who have responded most aggressively are the most popular right now. There's a scene in the movie Dallas Buyers Club (didn't love it, but it had its moments), when Matthew McConaughey's character is first diagnosed with HIV, and he's in denial about it, telling his friend that's it's all a bunch of BS, and his friend says to him, "What if it ain't?" And that's a question that might keep even most skeptics in line. "What if it ain't?" We shall see.
In other news, my boys and I all got haircuts since my last entry. It went pretty well. S ordered a decent set of clippers online, and then after that, it's really just picking what guard you want. The kids' cuts look fine, but you can clearly tell they were done at home by amateurs. They're just buzz cuts; they're not cute. I mean, they are, because they're on my kids, but they're not fashionably styled like they are when we go to cartoon cuts. They're not kid chic. Also, we messed up at first, so Lil' S2 has a patch on the back of his head that's cut nearly to the skin. S meant to use a three guard, but instead she used a one guard (3 mm), so it took off much more than we wanted. No biggie. It's in the back, and he's four, so he couldn't care less.
My cut, on the other hand, looks almost the exact same as it does when I get it done by a professional. I doubt anybody could tell it apart unless they really studied the edges, which nobody ever does. This begs the question: When quarantine is over, will I have S cut my hair for me all the time? Probably not. It's just easier to give somebody $25 and be done with it. Plus, I feel miserly when I do shit like that on my own. I feel like, if you can afford to pay somebody to cut your hair, then you should pay somebody to cut your hair. But that's just me.
Anyway, that's enough for now.
Until next time...
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