October 13, 2024

I have bronchitis and laryngitis. There’s nothing terribly unusual about that as for most of my adult life I’ve had a nasty chest infection once every year or two. I have just enough reactive airway issues that I wander around with an albuterol inhaler in my pocket just in case. What’s unusual about this particular bout is that it’s the first one since the before times. It’s been at least six years since the last time I had such an issue. I’m guessing that all the subtle little changed in behavior I’ve made because of the pandemic as regards to hand hygiene, social distancing, and just not being in as many crowded, poorly ventilated spaces with dozens of close friends whom I don’t know very well have kept me relatively insulated from all of the usual respiratory viruses that circulate. Well one has got me. I feel OK in general. Just a bit tired, have a nasty bronchial cough about once every two hours, and no voice. Church choir sang this morning. I had to excuse myself. The anthem was not arranged for the Hogwarts Frog Choir and croak was about the only noise I was going to be able to make. I have nine days until my first music rehearsal for my next show. Surely I will have recovered by then. I am waiting until about 9 pm and then I am going to try my voice out. If it’s still a croak whisper, I am calling in sick to work tomorrow. An extra day in bed won’t hurt.

The big news chez Duxbury this week is that we are once again a two cat household. A friend’s mother has moved into assisted living and could not take her cat with her so I stepped up to offer shelter and succor. Edward, the small black cat arrived on Wednesday and promptly disappeared as soon as the carrier was open. I know where he is hiding though, behind the dryer. I learned where all the cat hidey holes are when Binx first arrived. so I know where to look to make sure he’s still breathing. We’re making progress. There’s evidence that he’s coming out in the wee hours of the morning and eating and drinking and using the litterbox. Perhaps in a few weeks he’ll venture further afield. Binx was upset when i brought another cat in and hid from me as well for a couple of days. But I guess he’s forgiven me as he’s back to snuggling up on the bed with me and nipping at my toes.

I was going to write another essay for the new book this weekend before being felled by the virus de jour (and it’s not Covid – I checked). I’m putting it off. I have a bunch of unstructured time this next week so I can do it then. The ideas for the book are starting to come together in terms of themes for exploring changes wrought by the pandemic (reduction in frequency of viral illness – perhaps that’s one). I’m still looking for people with interesting stories of Covid and the pandemic that they want told for interview so if you have one, drop me a line. The topic I’m tackling next is some specific ways in which the health system has been damaged if not downright broken. I know a lot about this but if there’s a particular aspect you think should be mentioned, you know where to find me.

I’m avoiding the political scene which continues to heat up as we’re less than a month away from election day. I’ve made up my mind who I’m voting for and why and there’ little other than a burning bush and a set of stone tablets that could possibly change my mind so there’s no need for me to pay attention to the political ads that seem to be everywhere, the junk texts that constantly make my phone ping, or the various talking heads who seem to be constantly talking out of the other end of their digestive tracts. Given the structure of the constitutional system, steeped as it is in systemic racism and keeping power away from urban populations and investing it in rural (originally slave owning ) populations, there’s only 535 votes that matter and very bright minds and lots of dollars are at work to game that system. I have no idea what the end result is going to be. If Harris wins in a landslide, we will pretty much keep going as we’re going now – some like that, some don’t which has been true of every administration since the 18th century. If Harris wins and it’s a close victory, expect a major contestation and the Supreme Court to put its thumb on the scale as they did in 2000. If Trump wins, expect a lot of change. most of which is likely to be unpleasant, even for Trump constituents.

We’ve been living, in Western Society, by Enlightenment values for nearly three hundred years. Values which place logic, reason, and science at the forefront and such things as emotion and religion have been discounted. Perhaps that’s been a mistake. I think for a society to be healthy, both of those perfectly normal human impulses need to be nurtured. And, as in the last century, we’ve cut those latter ones out of the public sphere, out of education, out of socioeconomic decision making, they have more or less been driven underground and out of the town square and into close knit communities where emotional concerns have festered and metastasized into destructive impulses as there has been no way for them to be channeled into anything positive.

Rural states and towns have been dismissed by rural educated populations as fly over country rather than communities which are valued and should be part of the commonweal and allowed to flourish and grow. Economic policies which place profit over people have hollowed out extractive industries and manufacturing with nothing to replace them that would allow blue collar populations to maintain a decent standard of living. Education, since the introduction of the poorly named ‘No Child Left Behind’ act of two decades ago, has replaced critical thinking skills with teach to the test. The privatization of sectors which have no business being for profit such as corrections, health, and the military have warped social institutions missions away from caring for people. Social media, the 24 hour news cycle, and decline of comity in politics have riven us into two opposing teams which refuse to work with the other guy.

In the past, red and blue weren’t all that far apart from each other and, while they might disagree and yell at each other in session for political reasons, congresspeople would wrap up for the day and head out to the bar together and remain on amiable terms. Various forces started to undo this in the 90s and thirty years on, red and blue are so far apart they don’t agree on much of anything. So, when it comes to change in administration, while there were minimal bumps in the road in the past, now there are wild swings back and forth. I’m not sure the system can withstand those much longer and I suppose the unasked question is if a system can’t cope, is it the right system.

I can’t fix any of this. Some friends have suggested in the past I get involved in politics and run for something. Not happening. One, I’m way too much of a truth teller and that doesn;’t fly in the political arena. Two, I don’t want the opposition rummaging in my closet for skeletons. And there are a few lurking in the corners. So, I’m going to hide in my condo together with Binx and Edward (assuming he emerges from behind the dryer) with a bag over my head until Tuesday, November 5th. Then I will emerge, proudly cast my vote and live with the consequences.