Let's cross our fingers that we will look back at this time and smile. Or wonder how it even happened in the first place.
Indeed, way back when, our leaders in America had the right idea adopting that "laissez-faire" attitude toward the rest of the world. But, had that continued, my grandparents and your grandparents or parents may not have come here. I'd be on a farm in Germany perhaps milking a cow.
But there are no borders or boundaries in this world of globalization. So there are two sides to every coin. Sometimes, it's heads. When you get hit by the Coronavirus, it's definitely tails.
When the planes hit on 9/11, many folks look at the burning towers and said it was a movie. Well, here in March 2020, we have the sequel. Then we knew the enemy. Today it is invisible and, unless you live in a bubble, you can easily have it inside of you.
I went to my appointment with my trainer. We both covered the lower part of our faces with our hoodies. He and I both wore rubber gloves. Everything there was so over-chlorinated that it smelled like my high school swimming pool when the janitor dropped too much chemical into the water.
We did the best we could. That's all we can do. This is life in America at the moment. We are all crawling across 200 miles of broken glass while wearing shorts.
And then there's the rush on toilet paper. It's not like this virus has gastric tendencies. The hoarding was so ridiculous that it left others...um...without.
I have one friend who got so desperate that he went to the men's room in a public place and stole as much as he could from their dispenser.
Going to the supermarket is something akin to what my father used to do getting on line for gas back in the 70s. The Ralph's store I frequent is right next to UCLA and its student base. I saw most of them in the market that day. Wearing masks and hoarding ramen noodles.
Also clogging the aisles were older people. One lady could barely stand. Despite that, she was pushing not one, but two shopping carts full of stuff. Did she draw the short straw and got nominated to be this week's buyer for the entire nursing home?
Crazy.
I don't doubt that this illness is real which was spread initially by tons of Asian tourists running around Italy. But the frenzy perpetrated by social media and the news media is numbing. Now school systems are closed. Sports are closed. Movies are closed. Restaurants are closed.
The nation is closed.
But we got through these calamities before.
Hurricanes.
Gas lines.
Blackouts of multiple states at once.
Race riots.
Presidential assassinations...both completed and failed.
AIDS.
Watergate.
Depressions and recessions and inflation.
Y2K.
9/11.
Just like our parents and grandparents got through bread lines and World Wars and the fear of nuclear war.
Somehow and in some way, we will persevere.
Indeed, when this is remembered in a future Sunday Memory Drawer, I hope we can smile.
In March 2020, there will be a spike in newborn babies. And divorce cases...especially if married couples spent a lot more time together than they normally do.
Yes, today, we have lemons. I'd like to think it will bring not lemonade, but a tasty lemon tart.
In the meantime, we wash our hands.
Stay safe, all.
Dinner last night: Home made pizza from my neighbor.
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