A Public Diary During the Coronavirus/COVID-19 Pandemic ~ Day 5
A day of duality has come to pass. Light and Dark came into balance. The Spring Equinox happened yesterday, a day earlier than it has come in over 100 years. This all came down to our imperfect time keeping calendars and the fact that the year 2000 was a leap year. There’s a great article explaining it by Bob Berman you can check out called, quite aptly: SPRING 2020: THE EARLIEST SPRING IN OVER 100 YEARS
This morning I woke up at 4:44am and proceeded to begin a new 40 day Sadhana practice and a cold shower. Sadhana is a daily practice developed through Kundalini Yoga and involves poses, chants, and meditation. I have done a handful of these in the past, most recently back in October. I figured that with the changing of the seasons, this would be a good time to start another one. Plus, this isolation situation we are all in requires some ways to stay physically, emotionally, and spiritually, active. At least that’s my thoughts on the matter. I have been stretching daily and staying physical up to this point, I actually did 55 bench presses of my 4 year old yesterday which improved upon the 44 that I had done the day before. And thankfully, since the sun was out and it was a rather lovely day, I played in the yard with our son and did some yard work as well which felt good.
So, it’s March 20, 2020. It’s Friday and we’re essentially in the first proper week of this social distancing dance. That dance doesn’t seem to have full participation just yet as a great many folks across the country, and world, have not taken the precautions seriously. That is, besides those still working jobs that are crucial and necessary. The younger adults though, fresh out of high school, ready for spring break, have thrown caution to the wind it would seem and in great numbers in many pockets of the US, have let their hair down and whooped it the fuck up, in great numbers and in close proximity to one another. On one hand, that is totally understandable. I get it. On the other hand though, that is some fucked up shit that bums me the fuck out. But I’m not in any mood to throw shame or blame around to anyone. This pandemic and the way it is unfolding is confusing and strange and perhaps, if you aren’t taking daily deep dives into the news, like I am, then one could likely go about their days thinking this still isn’t much more than a passing flu scenario, or some such shit. And then many may think that because they are young and healthy and this largely only effects older folks, they may think they are invincible and can do what they want. But that is short sighted and objectively speaking, selfish and dangerous.
But I don’t care to call those people jerks or stupid or anything like that, what good does that do?
I was just reading that in London, where the spread is speeding up, they haven’t actually closed the pubs yet and while the grocery stores are empty, a lot of the restaurants and pubs are still packed. As of just this past evening. And London as I understand it is one of the hot spots for the outbreak. I’m sure that this is the case around our country where they have not been mandatorily closed as well, yet. And again, I get it. I don’t like the behavior or the choice to go out and potentially, if not quite likely, contract this virus and spread it further. I don’t like that at all. This whole thing is unlike anything we’ve dealt with in generations though. Only few alive have had to deal with quarantine and isolation like this before. And getting out and having fun is, well, fun. I get it. But this shit is getting gnarlier and gnarlier by the moment. At this point, we have to consider those most vulnerable to the virus. We must collectively take the actions we need to stop the spread and hope, pray, and actively do our damnedest to not infect each other and especially the elderly and immunocompromised.
Which brings me to consider the homeless populations around the country. Right now in Los Angeles there are efforts to get shelters in place for thousands and thousands of homeless folks, a measure and action that could and should have been done long ago but I digress, the problem or challenge in this is that they are going to put a shit ton of beds in these gyms and open spaces in big vacant buildings and then try and essentially corral the homeless population to come take shelter in these places. Even if the beds are six feet apart this seems as though it is just going to make a breeding ground and contamination situation of humungous proportions and I’m not too keen on imagining how that unfolds. And swinging back around to my digression, let’s be honest, there shouldn’t be any fucking homeless people. Period. No debate. And shelters are a stop gap, less than band-aid measure, and quite frankly bullshit miss allocation of resources when what should be happening is proper housing situations for all who need it. Nothing less than that is effective for ending fucking homelessness.
To be clear, a group shelter is not a home. These folks will still be homeless.
There are so many glaring and obvious problems with our current “civilization” that are becoming unfortunate burdens to our political leaders right now that they are needing to address and deal with. I suppose the best part about this is that it is showing how broken, and in many ways ridiculously inadequate and ineffective our current policies and practices are for society when it comes to every single human having their basic needs met under a just and equitable scenario. We have something going on, that has gone on for as long as there have been rulers of places, a wholly and completely intentional situation where there are have’s and have nots. And those that have today, are very fucking few while those who have not are many. In fact, we find ourselves in a situation where the vast majority of folk are the have nots and therefore we also are in a prime situation to rise up and change this fucking storyline.
This is a huge opportunity to rewrite the script, folks. Let’s do it.
We don’t have to fucking adhere to the policies and power dynamics of the past. Nope. Not anymore, we shouldn’t and we won’t.
Now is the time for all good people to come to the aid of our mythology.
What does this mean? What does this look like? Good questions for sure. And the path and way forward is going to become clear as ideas bubble forth from all corners of the globe (he he, corners of a globe 😂). For real though, there are already ideas and ways that are being developed and practiced to one degree or another, largely in populations that are, and have been, marginalized and oppressed, interestingly enough! Indigenous communities, communities of color, LGBTQ+ communities, and the like, those who have not had a “regular” or “normal” place in our current version of “civilization” have found ways to unite, celebrate their lives and their diversity, and create cohesive and resilient communities. We have a great deal to learn from them. And it is prime time we all come together, stop accepting the rich and ruling elite’s predatory capitalistic and settler colonial ways and re-fucking-make this reality in a way that benefits all. Doesn’t that sound nice? Here’s a great article by Paul Engler called: Coronavirus is a historic trigger event — and it needs a movement to respond.
And here’s another one, recently published in Teen Vogue about how we can treat the climate crisis with the same energy and intention as we are attempting to handle the coronavirus. It’s by Jamie Margolin and is titled: Coronavirus Shows Us Rapid Global Response To Climate Change Is Possible.
Oh, there is one more article worth just taking a gander at. While most living and active politicians are fuddling about during this crisis with half-ass, watered down measures and insufficien temporary policies. Bernie fucking Sanders is still leading the way and doing so, with gusto. He may very well not get the presidential candidate nod from the Democratic Party but that doesn’t surprise me in the least. After all, these two parties we’ve got are a part of the establishment and Bernie is not…
I’m gonna wrap this up for now and leave y’all with these articles and thoughts to chew on. That’s what I’m doing myself and while we still are in the early days of dealing with what is to come as this pandemic exponentially gets worse before it gets better, let us realize and accept that our current ways of operating on this planet have gotten exponentially worse and we now have a damn fine opportunity to collectively make them a whole lot better.
