Susan Corso's Blog — iAmpersand

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

any 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.’

Day 26 I [Heart] NY; or, Emotional Continence

In a Letter to the Editor this morning, its Warwick, New York-based author says, “Coronavirus is catastrophic, but it opens a new path.” She’s referring to different choices humanity could continue to make to help slow climate change. I’d like to consider her idea in a different context. Now, how do you feel? It’s a multiple choice test. Choose one. Mad? Bad? Sad? Glad? When 9.11 happened, New York City became, in an instant, America’s darling.

Day 25 Superheroes; or, The Good News & The Bad News

There’s good news and there’s bad news. No surprise there. This is where numbers fail us big-time. Try these two. Eighty percent of people who get coronavirus recover. Do the math. This means twenty percent of people who get coronavirus die. Okay, pay attention. How do you feel having just read those three sentences? Now, try these. Twenty percent of people who get coronavirus die. Do the math. This means eighty percent of people who get coronavirus recover.

Day 24 Passing the Buck; or, Stuck is a State of Mind

Hans-Georg Kräusslich, the head of virology at University Hospital in Heidelberg, Germany nailed it as he explained why Germany’s death toll is so low. “Maybe our biggest strength in Germany,” said Professor Kräusslich, “is the rational decision-making at the highest level of government combined with the trust the government enjoys in the population.” Hmm, rational decision-making. Hmm, trust in the population. This sounds distinctly utopian compared with, say, this: …

Day 23 The Germ of Truth; or, A Good Example

A headline in The Huffington Post news aggregator this morning called the Narcissist-in-Chief’s son-in-law Jared Kushner the “clown prince.” He has swooped into the federal government’s sullied pseudo-response to the coronavirus. An article in The Times this morning noted that “New York is running out of body bags,” and that the U.S. Navy ship in the Hudson is “a joke.” They have 20 patients.

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PandemicSusan CorsoApril 2, 2020metaphysics, coronavirus, COVID-19, Smashwords, free books

Day 22 Hidden, Revealed, Hidden, Revealed; or, Peeling the Hype to its Essence

Of stockpiled ventilators a New York Times headline this morning screeched, “Thousands Do Not Work.” Of Senator Kelly Loeffler’s possible insider stock trading, an article said, “Can a person who is this wealthy represent your concerns, as, say, a family that has lost its job because of this pandemic?” Of health care professionals attempting to protect themselves, another headline said, “‘I Do Fear for My Staff,’ a Doctor Said. He Lost His Job.” We are in the midst of a pandemic, but what’s going on here really?

Day 21 Macro to Micro; or, Things Are Getting Personal Now

Let’s be clear. Public health, as a discipline, is macro. It’s theoretical. Health care, as a discipline, is micro. It’s practical. The U.S. government has utterly failed its constituency on the theoretical level. Practically, life has become sketchy.

Day 20 POV—Point of View; or, The Lens Matters

As I’m sure you know, I start the externally-focused part of each day with the news. (Prior to that is my time for spiritual practice, but that’s another essay.) This morning’s offerings struck me upside the head with the notion of POV—point of view. In fact, I might go so far as to say that the entirety of journalism is an exercise in point of view. Here are some synonyms in no particular order: belief, view, opinion, attitude, feeling, sentiment, thoughts, ideas, position, perspective, viewpoint, standpoint, angle, slant, outlook, stand, stance, vantage point, side, frame of reference. I could go on, but you take my point.

Day 19 Look, There’s Haley’s Comet; or, Don’t Let Me Down Easy

I’m a Band-Aid-Off-Fast person. How about you? I’d rather have the immediate intensity of the sting all at once rather than the slow, agonizing burn of Band-Aid-Off-Slow. A Times’ article this morning by Thomas Fuller ran the headline, “How Much Should the Public Know?” I’ll tell you how much the public should know. Everything. Every last bloody thing.

Day 18 Noli Me Tangere; or, We Cannot Be Over the Rainbow

As languages go, I don’t mind the language of numbers. I do, however, think we’ve fetishized numbers as some sort of be-all and end-all that is dangerously illusory. Despite the universal historical practice of myriad forms of numerology, numbers a.k.a. data, aren’t the bottom line. The numbers for coronavirus have been startlingly bleak, haven’t they? So imagine my delight when a member of my household read that “113,000 people have recovered from COVID-19.”

Day 17 The Science of Enmity; or, The Terrors of the Invisible

My homiletics professor said it on the first day of class. “Every sermon must find a common enemy. It doesn’t matter what it is: sin, death, taxes, sex, politics. For a sermon to be effective, you need an enemy.” A marketing guru I’ve recently unfollowed said the same really. “Find their pain—and poke it!” It’s certainly a theme in the historical rendering of the behavior of the United States during World War II. A meme for WWII: “We had a common enemy that made us come together.” The question I wish to ask today isn’t about our common enemy. A six year old could tell us it’s the coronavirus.

Day 16 We Are All First Responders, or, The Trope of Medical Heroics

Are you an EMT? Are you an ER nurse? Are you an infectious disease doctor? Are you an ambulance driver? Are you an anesthesiologist? Are you a respiratory therapist? Are you a retail pharmacist? Are you a hospital kitchen worker? I’m not any of those things. Few of us are. But I am a first responder, and so are you. Or, if you’re not, you ought to be.

Day 15 The Hokey-Pokey Pop Quiz, or, There Is No Them

Oscar Hammerstein II is one of my heroes. His characters Will Parker and Ado Annie sing a song in Oklahoma! with a lyric that goes “With me it's all er nuthin'.” Then he straight-up asks Ado Annie, “Is it all er nuthin' with you?” The Trump Pandemic seems to me to be asking the same question of each of us. It’s a Hokey-Pokey Pop Quiz. Are you putting your whole self in? I am.

Day 14: The Spin-Doctoring of Need & The Power of Story

Transcendentalist Ralph Waldo Emerson was known for claiming, “The first wealth is health.” Today I’m sure deputy editor of The New York Times Magazine Jessica Lustig agrees with him. In her article “What I Learned When My Husband Got Sick with Coronavirus,” she describes taking care of her beloved spouse as he is ravaged by COVID--19.

Day 13: Scare City, and The Maverick called Time

It’s time for True Confessions. I wrote recently that a friend had sent my husband and me two masks as we couldn’t get any here in the Hudson River Valley. When the envelope arrived, it looked a little the worse for wear. Despite the best efforts of the USPS, that happens sometimes. We opened it to eight blue latex gloves, and a number ten envelope that had one mask. Without so much as a breath, a thought, a reservation, I said, “Someone’s stolen one.”