STAY AWAKE..

March 12, 2020
ART from years ago: 

Land Art (not ANT).. Vacant lot and fertilizer 2009

 

As Governor Gavin Newsom carries on about the current plague (I have opted to not dignify the name of the plague).. Watching the way TV news amps up the fear with images of the critter and other germy icky killer stuff, I need to remind myself that even though there certainly IS some kind of pandemic in the works, the odds of becoming infected are still quite slim. This doesn't mean to run rampant through the Costco high fiving every other shopper stopping for a bit of cheese.  It means that when virulent disease is on the loose, we must be extra careful.

Remember when we didn't know much about AIDS and every gay person may have become a pariah? That's the worst thing I recall about transmittable health issues.  

I'm writing this here and will post it to Facebook so that only those who may actually care in real life will see it and, hopefully, take heart.  

Quoting FDR about fearing fear is a good one. Washing your hands is a good one.

Hoarding TP and other stuff is a bad one.

Staying informed is a good one. 

Even for those of us who might compare the current political situation in the USA to the Dark Ages (and they are very dark to me, boy..).. 

We survive. We survive. 

The Company Theatre did a play called The Plague many years ago. One conceit of the show was that before the play began, the cast all drew lots to see who would "die" when the Dark Angel (Michael Stefani in a black leather cape and death mask) would sweep through the players.  That was the act break. The actors who had "died" got to go home. The rest of the cast finished the show... The point is that the odds are that each of us reading this will not die nor will we be ill with the virus. But, as the news makes us so aware of the horrible dangers and we see technicians in hazmat suits and respirators wheeling one victim or another into an isolation chamber, it's hard to stay clear on the odds... difficult to focus on Good Health.

I'm writing this mostly for myself.  I'll see a play tonight with a couple of hundred other folks in close proximity.  There may be masks (which I've heard really don't protect us much).. and fear that might cloud the performance.. But, the show must go on..  Right!?

Fear is palpable when we succumb to it. The irony is that it's a limbic reaction.. and we have little control over those brain functions that are part of the survival mode.

It's dark in Glendale. It's one of those seldom seen dark and drizzling days.  How can we tell ourselves that the storm will pass when government dictates the closure of any event that has more than 250 people? Thousands of jobs are lost. Sports cancelled. Theatre? No word from local theatres. The Ahmanson with 2,000 seats and averaging $100.00 a ticket? The Book of Mormon! $200K? lost? Hamilton scheduled to open at The Pantages? 2,700 seats.. bet those tickets are more than a hundred bucks! 

Panic may deep six our economy before the plague kills us all.

There are more than Forty Million residents in California.  Last year: 4,800 deaths from the flu.  These are mostly folks who were otherwise vulnerable. These figures show that .001+ percent of California folks have succumbed to INFLUENZA.. 

Figures for this plague are vague, but the panic is growing.  No one cancelled anything when the Flu Season came around. 

CBS News reports that to date (March 12, 2020) there have been 38 deaths due to the plague in the USA.  If there are 330 Million people in the USA (well not quite, but round numbers are easier to comprehend) do the math on the odds of one of us catching this virus (notwithstanding Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson!) and succumbing to it.  No one has said what the treatment and the recovery period might be.

BTW.. the odds of being felled by this dread disease are about one in a hundred million.. unsure of my math. On a Google search, the odds of being struck by lightning are about 1 in 7,000. 

Apropos nada.. Google says that winning the Powerball Lottery are more than one in over three hundred million.  

Statistics are guideposts.  I'm not going to try for the Powerball.  And, I'm not going into Donald Judd's Lightning Field with a tin foil hat. What I am going to do is find a way to reduce the anxiety by attending a high school musical; being very happy to see the parents of the girl playing the lead whether we hug one another or not! 

What each of us must do is to Seek Reason in these dark days and reassure one another that we love one another. Let's take our vitamin C and hydrate, eat food to keep our strength up and stay well. 

This too, shall pass.  And, if I change my mind about the Powerball, if you really are a friend, you are in for a share!  How's that?

michael sheehan

March 12, 2020