Susan Corso's Blog — iAmpersand

Day 33 A New Normal; or, Could Our Public Servants Grow Up Please?

At the risk of offense, I am tired of the pissing contests, boys. Actually, weary of them. Fatigued by them. Late Sunday Twitter sniping at Dr. Anthony Fauci, one of only two reliable voices to date in The Trump Pandemic, bore the hashtag time to #FireFauci. Early Saturday morning, after allegedly making the decision to close New York City schools the night before, Mayor Bill de Blasio sent the Governor a text message informing him. The Times wrote, “The episode was a glaring example of the persistent dysfunction between Mr. Cuomo and Mr. de Blasio, an often small-bore turf war that has now resurfaced during an urgent crisis in which nearly 800 New Yorkers are dying daily.”

PandemicSusan CorsoApril 13, 2020metaphysics, coronavirus, COVID-19, new normal, new, kind, sustainable

Day 32 Lux et Pax; or, Risen Indeed

My dreamtime early this morning yielded a high school football cheer I haven’t heard in almost fifty years. What do we want? A touchdown. When do we want it? Now. I hear it in the voice of Tammy, last name lost to time, who sat in front of me in French class. I’m sure you hear the cadence. It’s pretty much Cheer 101. Except, as usual, my brain did something entirely different with it. What do we want? Health & Wealth. When do we want it? Now.

PandemicSusan CorsoApril 12, 2020metaphysics, coronavirus, COVID-19, Mothers, Lux et Pas, Light, Peace, Us, Health, Wealth

Day 31 Gathering What’s Important; or, The Best Things in Life Aren’t Things

The first time I remember eating sourdough bread I was seventeen, sitting in a restaurant in San Francisco. There for eye surgery of which I was completely terrified, that fascinating, comforting taste can take me right back to Fisherman’s Wharf even now, some more than forty years later. Did you know there is a sourdough library? writes Frank Lidz in this morning’s Times. It lives eighty-seven miles southeast of Brussels, Belgium, and it’s run by Karl De Smedt.

Day 30 The Masks are Falling Off; or, Scaling the Inner Walls

Melania Trump’s picture in a face mask in The New York Times this morning was telling in marked contrast to the man she married who refuses to wear a mask because “it will look bad.” Remember Governor Gina Raimondo of Rhode Island? Outcomes, not optics. I spent over an hour yesterday on the phone with a client talking her off a metaphorical roof.

Day 29 Private is as Private Does; or, MYOB

I have asserted before, and no doubt, will again that Mary Engelbreit never lets me down. Today’s page-a-day adage is from Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, author of The Little Prince. It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; / What is essential is invisible to the eye./ Now, contrast that with these scenarios please. A woman, living in Staten Island, knows that her father in Virginia has life-threatening cancer. Her heart is calling her to Virginia. Two friends call her and read her the riot act about leaving her home and putting others at risk.

Day 28 Wellness isn’t Health; or, Unlearning Helplessness in Exchange for Joy

You might know this, or you might not, but every day I post a spiritual haiku to Instagram. Here is yesterday’s: The health of the world/depends upon the health of each/one. How could it not?/ Today is United Nations World Health Day—say a prayer for the health of everyone in the world—no exceptions! Uncanny. I wrote it weeks ago. That’s how it goes for intuitives sometimes. All the more reason, then, when I read Amanda Hess’ “Health Is in Danger. Wellness Wants to Fill the Void” in The New York Times, I thought it was, quite frankly, grotesque.

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.

Free Book Announcement

I’m so grateful to be able to say we’ve given away over 70 books so far, and counting! Here’s a reminder of what books are free, and where to get them through April 20, 2020.

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.