Life in the time of Covid-19, a change is gonna come;

The world is changing.  Hell, the world has already been marked by quite a few significant shanges! 

I started to write this post back in September of 2021. That’s about eight months ago. Things definitely started to change!

We had been slapped around by a pandemic, endured a pseudo fascist American President, witnessed violent recognition of systemic racism in North American culture, endured unprecedented forest fires, weathered more hurricanes than most of us have ever seen in a single season, watched floods ravage arable land, and fought through other push backs from the planet that are reputed to be the effects of climate change.

The pseudo fascist American President and his supporters started hacking away at the underpinnings of American democracy.

In Canada we discovered that the churches and the government we believed we could trust had been engaged in a systemic attempt to eradicate the traditions and cultures of the indigenous peoples through neglect, abuse, and a nefarious cancel culture.

Russia’s dictator, Vladimir Putin has allowed his ego to get the upper hand and ordered the invasion of Ukraine.

I find so much of this to be overwhelming that I can’t even watch the late night news comfortably anymore. Its all war, weather or wrong doing. There isn’t much ‘nice’ in the world at the moment.

I’m just old enough and cynical enough to know that we’re not done yet, either. I recognize that we’re never goin back to the way things were.

Sam Cooke wrote and sung an appropriate anthem for the times some years ago;

“Then I go to my brother
And I say, brother, help me please
But he winds up, knockin’ me
Back down on my knees

Oh, there been times that I thought
I couldn’t last for long
But now I think I’m able, to carry on

It’s been a long
A long time coming
But I know a change gonna come
Oh, yes it will

Written by Sam Cooke

A bigger change is gonna come.  Here in North America we like to believe that we’re moving towards normality.

We had been hoping that we were positioning for the opening of federal, state, and provincial economies, with varying degrees of guidance.   And it has been mostly conflicting guidance, ineffective or nonexistent. 

We were wrong. Governments have no clear vision as to what needs to happen next.

Now we’re stuck in a loop churning about the return to school and work after the Christmas/Seasonal holiday breaks with the addition of the confusion about vaccines and we’re butting up against Spring Break.

Yes, with the war in Ukraine we’ve moved beyond the big ‘thing’ of Covid-19 vaccine rollouts around the world and the discovery of new variants of the virus. The pandemic continues, but the fatigue gets worse.

So what happened between September and January?

There were the Black Lives Matter riots.  A bungled American Presidential election that further cemented the reputation of Trump as a clown and the Republican GOP as the occupants in his clown car.

Someone once said that real governance begins at the municipal level.  We’re seeing that with the passing of mandatory mask by-laws and rules for the resumption of business and use of transit. 

The provincial government (state) where I live implemented a watered-down version of a mandatory mask policy and then dropped the ball on enforcement, and still tried to put us into a shutdown that had no teeth.  The population and the better part of the ruling party’s back benchers are demanding that the Premier stand to account for his decisions. We could see a change in leadership, not that there was much real leadership in the first place.

Canada suffered through the indignity of the Trucker Convoy protesting Covid protection mandates. The organizers and active participants were just a bunch of crybabies. James Gordon got it right; Crybaby Caravan

A change is gonna come.  Municipal governments have always had a better sense of the needs of their communities and have more insight than federal and state/provincial counterparts.

Has the guilt of inaction set in with you as it has with me? 

I’ve had all this time and space to do something personally important like planning my future, and I’ve done very little, or nothing.  The term ‘couch potato’ comes to mind but it’s more of enforced procrastination or ennui than that sort of inertia caused by inactivity. 

What should I have be doing with my time in isolation/quarantine, especially now knowing that vaccines are here, but governments are failing us in the delivery? What should I be doing now?

My wife has stopped making masks.  We’re buying them now that the supply chain caught up with the demand. She made close to two hundred to date.  She has rediscovered her interest in jewelry making and has produced some really nice pieces. Anxiety and something akin to depression is slowing her down. I support her efforts by working at reclaiming my knowledge of polymer clays and making beads, earrings and pendant pieces that she can turn into wearable jewelry.

I am painting again at the insistence of my granddaughter and friends.

Do we have workable vaccines yet? I am going to go out on a limb and say yes.

Magic bullet vs. Silver bullet

A magic bullet is a mythology and must be believed in to be effective and to really work. 

A silver bullet is based on a formulaic approach and is therefore a real possibility that can be made by anyone. 

The belief in the effectiveness of the silver bullet on the intended target is what gives it real power. Mythologically we believe a silver bullet can kill werewolves.  Silver is the werewolf Achilles heel solution.  What is the solution to the covid-19 crisis?  What’s our Silver bullet to deal with this epidemic and where is it going to come from? Self isolation and physical distancing is the wolf’s bane that will hold the beast at bay.

We, ourselves, and how we deal with the crisis are the magic bullet.

When they fling open the doors shouting “the werewolf is vanquished!” it will mean they developed the silver bullet.  We will go rushing out into the world again, unafraid, or ‘less afraid’.  It will be time to rebuild and reframe our world.  It will be the who that we have become during isolation that gets to rebuild the world.

A Change is gonna come

There are now more than three viable vaccines out there.  Is any one of them, or are all of them the silver bullet we need?  Will they drive us to herd immunity once administered?

We will then have to ask ourselves; did we retain our humanity during the time of crisis?

What has really changed? Not much! In fact, the pandemic provided a smokescreen for the evil in the world, and an excuse not to pay attention, and a reason to put so many important issues on ‘ignore‘.

Changes!

A change is gonna come. 

As I said, I am painting again at the insistence of my granddaughter and friends. Maybe that’s not such a great idea.

When I younger there was a yoga/lifestyle book out called (loosely)” what to do ‘til the messiah comes.”  Bernard Gunther put it together and it became a classic ‘hippy’ book about transitioning to adulthood in a changing world.  This is the same thing.  The same times.  We may be waiting for the magic bullet but what we really need now is the silver bullet.

We need it now.  We’re discovering that we may not be able to find the patience to wait much longer.  Most governments in the world have tried to ‘re-open’ their economies by relaxing restrictions, but a surprising number have had to shut things down again.  Other governments are still arguing about how to get the kids back into school safely.  This is starting to look like a disaster waiting to happen.

Do we have workable vaccines yet? Looks like it.

Silver bullet vs. Magic bullet

I will say it again; we, ourselves, and how we deal with the crisis are the magic bullet.

A Change is gonna come

We will then have to ask ourselves; did we retain our humanity during the time of crisis?

What has really changed?

Take a good look around.

We’re still waiting to unpack the future.