Entry 523: The Danger Zone

You know how when you go to the woods, you will sometimes see a sign telling you the fire danger rating?  I feel like we all need one of those for our anxiety level during "Coronavirus Season" (as my kids call it).  Mine was "very high" earlier this week, in the yellow, approaching orange, but I've dropped off to the blue: just normal "high."  I don't know what causes the fluctuations.  Nothing has happened in either direction that should have affected my anxieties levels.  But, for whatever reason, I felt much more uneasy at the beginning of the week than I do now.  Maybe it's just a learned behavior to relax on the weekend and stress out at the start of the week (an extension of the Sunday Blues).  Who knows?

Our mayor announced DC public schools will go entirely virtually until at least November.  It sucks (obviously), but probably for the best.  I was steadfastly in favor of school returning as normal in the fall, but after hearing a lot of the teachers didn't want to be forced to return in-person, I changed my tune considerably.  They are already overworked and underpaid, and now we are going to ask them to risk their health so that the rest of us can have some relief?  That doesn't seem right.

Although, that's not an entirely accurate way to frame it.  For many parents and students, school isn't just a source of relief, it's a necessity.  If you don't have the resources -- time, money, moral support -- to keep kids home, you really need school.  Not having it is not just an inconvenience (albeit a fucking massive one) like it is for us.  That's why I mentioned in a previous post that I'd be in favor of a school-only-for-those-who-really-need-it model.  Sadly, it probably wouldn't work politically/socially.  We are way too selfish.

Speaking of which, Paul Krugman has a good article up this week titled "The Cult of Selfishness is Killing America", which is about how the reluctance (and in many cases outright refusal) of Trump and his acolytes to take basic precautions against Covid, such as mask wearing, fits into a broader warped world view.  I recommend the entire article, but the final passage is particularly on-point.

Just to be clear, I’m not saying that Republicans are selfish. We’d be doing much better if that were all there were to it. The point, instead, is that they’ve sacralized selfishness, hurting their own political prospects by insisting on the right to act selfishly even when it hurts others. 

What the coronavirus has revealed is the power of America’s cult of selfishness. And this cult is killing us.  

I agree with Paul that this selfishness is mainly perpetrated by those on the right end of the political spectrum, but there is an element of this on the left too -- just not to the same extent and not with the same vindictiveness (and this matters; degree matters, a lot; I'm definitely not trying to "both sides" this).  We have such a look-out-for-number-one, gotta-get-mine mindset in this country.  We are terrible at working toward a greater good, just for the sake of the great good.  Often a greater good happens to be a byproduct of our individual, selfish pursuits (the good side of capitalism), but when this isn't the case, as with this pandemic, we flounder.  It's sad and disheartening.

But, hey, at least we can still have the music of Kenny Loggins.



Alright, I hear the movie I put on for the kids coming to an end.  I better go.  I don't want them to bother S.  She's been really stressed out this weekend.  We are trying to line up some sort of part-time nanny/tutor to help us out when school starts again, and she's not going to be able to relax until that's finalized.  I'm sure it doesn't help that I'm pretty blasé about the whole thing.  (We will find somebody, and if we don't, we will still get by.)  Also, I slept in today, so I think S feels I owe her some emotional capital.  I understand that, but it's not really my fault -- I just didn't wake up and nobody woke me up.  What am I supposed to do, set an alarm for Saturday morning?  Time: 8:00 am.  Label: Make sure spouse isn't annoyed.

Until next time...