The Bright Side of this Covid-19 Pandemic

The suffering can't be measured in number of fatalities, which compared to all the diseases of the aged are small, but to the fear, the rareness of such a plague being beyond anyone's memory -- the pervasive feeling of suffocation by a miasma of microscopic entities too complex to understand that can reach us no matter our protections is overwhelming.

What exactly do I find good, maybe even exhilarating about such a scourge!!

First I have to give some background, the answer to  "what kind of a life has this guy lived that he's enjoying the suffering of the entire world"   Well, first of all I'm not.  I have empathy for those who are living in fear, and compassion for those afflicted.

The pleasure, sometimes even happiness, can only be explained by describing my previous life that has been transformed, that just may resonate with others.   No, I haven't cornered the cloth mask market, or discovered a secret cure for those afflicted.  It's that after eight decades, I am living in a different world.  It's a middle class suburb of San Diego, that we moved to based on a fantasy- that even though a lower status area, this time, we would find that community that provides a neighborly setting that I have sought all of my life.

It didn't.  Rather it turned out to be even less than I had longed for -- actually all of my life.  My wife and I just came back from a long walk, where we started to talk about our parents, all of them from a Jewish East European shtetl, and how their fears of being among non-Jews affected us, differently but with some similarities.  Now, most of our faith (usually non-faith) first and second generation have done fine, the number of Democrats in the leadership of Congress being an illustration.

Stone sober, our walk had taken us to the land of Oz, that although threatened by evil,  was full of laughter and joy.  Those strangers in the land we came from only two weeks ago BC (Before  Coronavirus) were now like family, as we walked past each other with a smile and greeting that said we are all together in this battle, so we step away as a sign of caring, of protection for you and your dog, or children from being harmed.

These seem to be the same people who I passed in silence before.  The same kids who now I would eke out a smile with some silly joke, that would make her worried mother happy also.  When we move to the side to secure that "social distance" that has become like a little dance, often with a tip of the hat to convey the irony of our now formalized routine.

For a while my spouse was engrossed in the catastrophe engulfing N.Y.C. since she had lived their until we moved west two decades ago.  We had lived together on the top of a 40 story condo nestled a short walk from Central Park, Lincoln Center and the Hudson River.  I had gotten involved, running for the nomination for the state legislature; although losing, getting to know Assemblyman Jerald Nadler in our joint effort to stop a mega-development of an aggressive developer who was later to make quite a name for himself. 

I had gone cold turkey, no TV or Newspapers at all, while S. was following the carnage taking place in her home town.  Her engrossed in the carnage from our viral enemy, my treating this lightly was unacceptable.  "This is no joke" she said expressing her own fear that I would bring this scourge home on my unwashed hands.  I could take it no more, to the point I had to take a long long walk, reaching the long strip under the high tension wires that had become a dog walk. There, like our loving pooches, we express no political views,  as we care about each other species and party not interfering.
 
I allow myself to dream that when this scourge is defeated the sense any differences among us being subordinated to defeating our common enemy will remain.  If this is a delusion that should be dissipated by the reality of our political divisiveness, it is one I will savor as long as I can. I know that this virus can and will be defeated, but the greater challenge remains, which is find a way to bring us --not exactly together-- but to a point where our differences can be hashed out civilly.

We atheist don't believe in God, but maybe we can make an exception this one time, and all pray that  if this scourge is a message to us all, that the kind of hatred that now prevails will cease.   and we will not allow all of the works of those who came before us to be in vain.  We can have both social distance and neighborly love, something that I may have caught rather than the virus, that I happily share with all.