Susan Corso's Blog — iAmpersand

Day 65 Simplicity Out of Complexity; and, The Golden Key

Dr. Marty Makary is a surgeon and a professor of health policy at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health. His ideas about how to deal with Covid-19 are, to borrow an Obama Era word, evolving. Ours should be, too. In “How to Reopen America Safely,” he writes, “The choice before us isn’t to fully lock down or to totally reopen. Many argue as though those are the only options.” Dr. Thomas R. Frieden, a former director of the C.D.C. in the Obama administration, said this week, “We’re not reopening based on science. We’re reopening based on politics, ideology and public pressure. And I think it’s going to end badly.” I agree with Dr. Frieden. After some consideration, I think it’s going to end badly, too. Here’s his upshot: “Having 50 states and more territories do competing and uncoordinated experiments in reopening is daring Mother Nature to kill you or someone you love. Mother Nature bats last, and she bats a thousand.”

Day 64 At War, Civil War; and, The Future of our Children

A new study, out in Lancet, is at last drawing attention to coronavirus and children. Until now, children who have been ill were counted simply as a minimal part of the pandemic. However, now that there’s been a study that measures the metrics, the children of the world are front and center. It made me think that perhaps in the crisis mode that we’ve all been living for two months, we have given little thought to what this pandemic means for the children, the youth, and the young adults of our world. And still, the virus keeps coming.

Day 63 A Swamp of Reasonable Doubt; and, A Symphony of Sirens

“Two distinct sounds have been competing in New York City’s streets during the coronavirus pandemic: the wail of sirens and the songs of ice cream trucks.” What a perfect dichotomy to represent where we are with the Trump Pandemic. Paul Krugman put it so eloquently: “As Andy Slavitt, who ran Medicare and Medicaid under Barack Obama, puts it, Trump is a quitter. Faced with the need to actually do his job and do what it takes to crush the pandemic, he just gave up.” Things are so fast, furious, and contradictory that I’ve switched my metaphor from Wimbledon singles, now I see which proceed at a relatively sedate, matronly pace, to championship table tennis a.k.a. ping pong, which is so fast that sometimes, the bouncing ball disappears. “[T]he public is also wrestling with a barrage of conflicting messages.”

Day 62 The Or Belief Systems; and, The And Belief Systems

The notoriously close-knit Hasidic Jewish communities have been hard hit by the coronavirus. Even so, many of them, celebrating their newly-restored health in spite of their grief, have driven long distances to donate blood plasma, “rich in the antibodies they generated when they were sick with Covid-19. [P]ublic health data suggests that the Orthodox and Hasidic community may have been affected at a rate that exceeds other ethnic and religious groups, with community estimates placing the number of dead in the hundreds. ... [T]housands have donated blood plasma, which public health officials believe may be used to help treat people suffering from Covid-19.” The chief Liar-in-Chief cut short and stomped out of a press briefing when “a Chinese-American reporter pressed him on why he suggested she ‘ask China’ to respond to her question on coronavirus death rates.” He accused her of asking a “nasty question.”

Day 61 Take It From the Top or Bottom; or, Fear in Cyber-Disguises

It’s time to talk about the fear again. In fact, it was fear, unaddressed fear, that prompted this series of essays, now in its third month. Humans have as many different reactions to fear as there are humans. Having spent most of my life counseling people about what boils down to their fears of all stripes, I think it is safe to say that there are two major approaches to fear, under which all variations on a theme fall. They are: from the bottom or from the top. Consider approaching a mountain. You only have to go one way. Up or down. Do you start at the bottom and go up? Or do you start at the top and go down? It won’t surprise you that it really depends upon what you believe about gain; well, the cost of gain.

Day 60 Mothers & Sons; or, How to Keep Your Own Faith

I wasn’t quite sure how I would put together writing about the coronavirus pandemic that is leading our world at the moment and motherhood, but I wakened this morning thinking of my mother and the remarkable things she did when she was here, and, my faith would tell me, must be continuing wherever she is now. Here’s where my memories took me. All the characters in this world drama we have no choice but to witness right now had mothers. Every single one of them.

Day 59 Free Won't; or, Listening to the Serpents

A personal body servant of the President’s has tested positive for coronavirus as has the Vice President’s press secretary. There’s a cosmic subtext here that seems billboard-with-chaser-lights large to me. It’s as though the virus itself has said, “Fine. Go ahead. Deflect. Reject. Minimize. Abuse me and your people all you want. But if you won’t come to me, if you won’t take me seriously, if you won’t attend to the effect I am having, then fine, I’ll come to you. I’m good with that

Day 58 A Real, Bona Fide Pivot; or, From PTSD to PTSG

Yesterday’s Times had a map that showed thirty states planning to reopen to varying degrees immediately. I was proud to note that New York wasn’t one of them. The hardest part about the map is that the virus has just begun to manifest in most of those states whereas in New York, we seem to be on the downside of the curve. That’s both a relief and a terror. One of the major absences I’ve felt during the pandemic has been that of the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention—the C.D.C. A lot of surprising silence, some, and I quote, ‘suggestions,’ but no leadership at all. The Batterer-in-Chief has cowed the C.D.C. into stuttering syllables. It’s appalling.

Day 57 Caught in The Drama Triangle; or, The Cure for Drama is Theatre

The United States of America is caught in what’s known in psychology as The Drama Triangle. Bear with me. Here’s a quickie Wiki explanation: “The drama triangle is a social model of human interaction – the triangle maps a type of destructive interaction that can occur between people in conflict. The drama triangle model is a tool used in psychotherapy, specifically transactional analysis. The triangle of actors in the drama are oppressors, victims and rescuers.

Day 56 Your Quarantine Quotient; or, Vigilante Complacency

“As he looked over the protective equipment [in a retooled mask factory in Phoenix], the Guns and Roses rendition of the Paul McCartney song ‘Live and Let Die’ blared over loudspeakers. Searches for the song exploded on social media and critics were quick to take note. ‘I can think of no better metaphor for this presidency than Donald Trump not wearing a face mask to a face mask factory while the song ‘Live and Let Die’ blares in the background,’ the late-night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel wrote on Twitter.” There was a video that accompanied the story which I played for eleven of its thirty-one seconds, when a thought struck me. Remember seeing pictures of U.S. presidents at the beginnings of their terms? They almost, to a man [sadly], look invigorated, enthusiastic, ready to hit the ground running. Four years later, or eight, no matter what has gone down in the nation or the world, they almost, to a man [sadly], look exhausted, determined, and with much more grey hair than they had on Day One.

Day 55 The Veruca Virus; or, I Want What I Want When I Want It

I am beginning to think I live in a country, maybe even a world, populated by Veruca Salts, and that we are being battered by yet another virus. For those not in this particular know, Veruca Salt is the supremely spoiled British girl in the Roald Dahl classic Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Julie Dawn Cole brought her to stunning, whiny, tantrumy life in the 1971 film starring Gene Wilder redubbed Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. You know which one I mean, She of the “IwantitNOW,Daddy!” refrain. Maybe the world isn’t overrun by Verucas, but there are enough Verucas, and their wheels are squeaking loudly enough that it’s giving me pause, and a little bit of a headache. “It’s the economy, stupid,” says the Lincoln-wannabe in The White House. “The economy. The economy. The economy.” Maybe if he keeps saying it loudly enough it will drown out every other voice, the voices of reason.

Day 54 Hollow Reassurances; or, Who’s Zoomin’ Who?

The congressional district that Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Democrat of New York, represents is the hottest of the coronavirus hot spots in the entire country. Her policy positions, she said, have only been affirmed by the damage the coronavirus has inflicted, disproportionately, upon lower-income populations. In a Fox News Town Hall, the Arrogance-in-Chief said, “At some point we have to open our country. And people are going to be safe. We’ve learned a lot. We’ve learned about the tremendous contagion. But we have no choice. We can’t stay closed as a country. We’re not going to have a country left.” In that same conversation, Mr. Trump upped his death toll numbers; we’ve already long surpassed his original estimate—all the while assuring us that we will be safe.

Day 53 Profits and Pride; or, What Money Is and What Money Isn’t

Laurie Garrett predicted the coronavirus. Frank Bruni asks “What Does She Foresee Next?” Straight up, she “expects years of death and ‘collective rage.’” That makes sense. Facts, and the feelings they engender. Got it. “What Garrett has been warning most direly about—in her 1994 best seller, “The Coming Plague,” and in subsequent books and speeches, including TED Talks—is a pandemic like the current one.” Simple math. 2020 – 1994 = 26 years. Yep, more than a quarter of a century.

PandemicSusan CorsoMay 3, 2020metaphysics, coronavirus, COVID-19, profits, pride, #GlobalVaccine

Day 52 There Oughta Be A Law; or, Oh, Wait, There Is

Automatic weapon-toting protestors paralyze the capitol of Michigan. Upstate New Yorkers protest that they’re not New York City. The Governor of Maryland has called out the National Guard to protect the state stockpile of personal protective equipment from theft by the Feds. Today’s Coronavirus Outbreak aggregator says, “The timing and the extent of lockdown restrictions imposed to prevent the spread of the coronavirus have prompted a raft of lawsuits across the United States. All manner of rights are being asserted. Individual rights. Commercial rights. Free speech rights. Property rights. In Los Angeles, for example, a diverse group of small businesses, including a gondola service, a mariachi band and a pet grooming spa, have sued in federal court.”There is a subtext to all of these actions, no, maybe two.

PandemicSusan CorsoMay 2, 2020metaphysics, coronavirus, COVID-19, civil law, Cosmic Law

Day 51 The Curveless Curve; or, Shoulda, Coulda, Woulda, et al

Frank Bruni said it beautifully. “Republicans are not drinking bleach, but they are drinking the Kool-Aid.” I’m worried. And because my mother was a world-class worrier, I gave it up decades ago. It made no sense to me to compete with her when I couldn’t possibly. But now, I am worried. I’m worried that we’re allowing the data spin doctors too much leeway. Not that any of us is turning into a Republican, but that the Kool-Aid fumes are affecting our reasoning. “Flattening the curve” has become newly-minted shorthand that doesn’t mean what we want it to mean, no matter how much we want it to mean it. What we’re actually looking for is not a curve in motion at all. We’re looking for NO curve, a flat curve, a curve-less curve.

PandemicSusan CorsoMay 1, 2020metaphysics, coronavirus, COVID-19, Jubilee Year

Day 50 The Cheshire Cat; or, Now You See Me, Now You Don’t

The always-brilliant Jennifer Finney Boylan noted in her opinion essay on Sunday “The Curious Incident of No Dog in the White House,” “Much has been written about what might be generously described as Donald Trump’s lack of interest in dogs, and as the election of 2020 slowly draws near, it’s a subject worth considering again.” Her brief history of dogs of The White House is well worth your reading time. “Donald Trump is, in fact, the first president since William McKinley [1897-1901] not to have a dog.” That’s 123 years. I think I’ve figured out why, and it’s not because of his stated reason when someone tried to give him a dog. “Mr. Trump told Ms. Pope he was too busy for a dog. Later, he told supporters he didn’t need one. Because ‘that’s not the relationship I have with my people.’” What? I think it’s because Donald Trump is actually a Cheshire Cat. With salaams and deep apologies to The Cheshire Cat.

PandemicSusan CorsoApril 30, 2020metaphysics, coronavirus, COVID-19, focus, Cheshire Cat, Jennifer Finney Boylan