Day 27 Without Context; or, Complexity is Here to Stay

Many decades ago, in one of the first Bible classes I ever took, a student asked, “What does the Bible have to say about [here we fill in “the hottest social justice issue of our day”]?

The seasoned teacher replied, “Pro or con?”

There was a distinct stillness and a sudden hush in the room as her answer ricocheted through all of us.

I had the same feeling this morning when, after having read five or so news articles about numbers. Oh, sorry. The data. It sounds so much more important when we say ‘data,’ instead of ‘numbers.’

Someone predicted a “ghastly uptick” in deaths this week.

Someone else suggested the pandemic would peak in New York by April 15th.

Governor Cuomo has said, “I follow data. I don’t have instinct. I don’t have a gut. It’s not about emotion.”

Um, Mr. Cuomo? Sorry to contradict you, sir, but ... well ... it kinda is. About emotion, I mean. It’s about emotion and a hundred million other things too complex to name.

Here’s a perfect example. The Narcissist-in-Chief yesterday said that the U.S. had outstripped all other countries in the numbers of tests given. Good news, right?

Not so fast. He, it turns out, was referring to having outstripped South Korea in numbers of tests, and indeed, the U.S. has.

Context? South Korea is miniscule in mass and in population relative to these not-so-united United States.

So, more tests in raw numbers? Yes. A drop in the bucket here in the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave? Yes, indeed.

Years ago Tom Conti starred in a Broadway show called “Whose Life Is It, Anyway?” I remember because I saw it with him first, and then with Mary Tyler Moore, who replaced him. The title asks an important question that I’m going to pirate.

Whose Data Is It, Anyway?

Furthermore, what, exactly is it counting?

Are we counting hospitalizations?
Are we counting deaths?
Are we counting tests?
Are we counting confirmed diagnoses?
Are we counting suspected cases?

What are we counting? And why?

“There are reasons to treat the data with caution.” I quote this morning’s Times.

Ya think?

Unlike my Bible professor, who asked from what context the querent wanted an answer, the press and all the rest of us, have become data-mongerers. And data-mongerers, like it or not, have both opinions and points of view. Data, as much as we love to bandy it about, is always derived from a context.

If we don’t know the context of the data, the data, then, mean nothing.

Here’s an issue that without context makes no sense whatsoever: who are the essential workers? How is it decided who is essential? Whose Essential Is It, Anyway?

For a single mom with three kids and no daycare and no child support, essential means one thing.

That she and her children have food, shelter, and clothing. Does she go to work? Who takes care of her babies? Where? For how long?

For a cancer patient in the midst of treatment in the face of a pandemic, essential means another thing altogether.

That he continue his treatment plan, get the chemotherapy and radiation therapy he needs? That his family’s needs are seen to in the meantime?

Sure, health care workers are essential. Sure, grocery store cashiers are essential. Sure, law enforcement is essential. But what about the scientists and doctors who are developing tests and vaccines? Are they essential? If we want life to go back to normal, they are.

I could go on and on, but I won’t.

Essential, it turns out, is, uh, complicated.

“We want every American to know that what they’re doing is making a difference,” Dr. Deborah Birx, the leader of the White House coronavirus task force, said Monday during the group’s daily briefing.

Making a difference. If I had a nickel for every time I’d heard these three words from a client over more than 35 years, I’d be able to cover the costs of testing every person in the U.S. of A. It’s the one thing that everyone can agree that we want.

“I just want my life to make a difference.”

Your life, and mine, can make a difference right now, this minute, and for a long time to come, Beloved. Here’s just what health care workers need.

Heed “the No. 1 plea of all health care providers and emergency workers: Maintain social distance if you go out. Otherwise stay home!”

Here’s a second difference you can make right away: Manage your own fear.

“Brian Hildebrand, a Staten Island paramedic, said a lot of his job now involves responding to people who are panicky, not ill.” “Don’t let fear dictate your actions,” Mr. Hildebrand advised.

If you think you’re ill, first take a breath. “Try this coronavirus self-checker from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.”

Here are more ways to make a difference:

If can you, “donate to P.P.E. fund-raisers on sites like Fundly or GoFundMe.”

Can you sew? Use your skills to help with the P.P.E. shortage. Right where you are.

Give blood. It’s needed. But find out how to do so safely in your community.

Donate food if it’s needed and wanted. The last thing overworked health care providers need right now is one more thing to manage.

Offer front-line responders a place to stay if you can. Or daycare for their kids.

Do you know health care workers? They’re swamped, exhausted, and just as we feel there’s no end in sight, they feel it even more. Call a friend and let her vent to her heart’s content. Don’t argue, don’t fix, don’t help. Just witness.

Are you one of those people who approach soldiers or sailors in uniform who you don’t know to thank them for their service? Let’s add health care workers to our gratitude lists, shall we? Look for persons in scrubs.

And if you can’t do any of the things on this list or if can do every single one of them, pray. Pray for those who are ill, for those who will be ill, for those who are doing what they can to help them get better, for the families of those who are ill or exposed, for those who are grieving loved ones who have died, and for the whole world to be somehow healed through this pandemic.

Do you see, Beloved? Data or no data, it’s all context, and it’s all essential on one level or another. Being human is in itself essential and a complexity. We are a bundle of fascinating, mad/sad/bad/glad contradictions and delights.

And although one thing for sure is true, namely, that this pandemic, whether we can predict when or not, will end, another is true now, and will be true when that ending comes.

Complexity is here to stay, and we are responsible for holding all of its magical contradictions for ourselves and everyone else in the world, too. It’s just that complex context that makes our complex content have value.

Dr. Susan Corso is a metaphysician and medical intuitive with a private counseling practice for more than 35 years. She has written too many books to list here. Her website is www.susancorso.com

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