How are you feeling these days? We have lots to digest including the spread and resurgence of Covid-19 with more positive tests, rising death tolls, increase in unemployment, peaceful protesting, rioting in our cities, destruction of public monuments, police brutality, and an economy in free fall. Back in January of 2020, were any of these issues on your radar? Until we walk in each others shoes, we don’t know what others experience on a daily basis. I do not have solutions to any of these problems; nor do I have any conspiracy theories to share and will leave that to the multitude of talking heads who flood our airwaves every day to discuss, hash, rehash, and then rehash again. There will be no clever quotes, slogans, or panaceas proffered here as frankly, I’m exhausted.
What I do know is that most of us simply want answers. We want to know how bad 19 really is and will it return this fall. Hell, it hasn’t even left for the first time yet and you’re telling me it will return again in September or October? What about the economy? Are we going to see things improve or are we heading for a recession or God forbid, a depression? I’m old. I’m in the 4th Quarter of my life and I’d like to know what lies ahead. I’ve had more than my share of radiation and chemotherapy and have chronic bronchitis. I am a high-risk guy. Doctors tell me the only things I can do to be higher risk are gain a bunch of weight, get diabetes, and stop walking. The good news is that when a vaccine becomes available, I will be first in line in the world to get my shot. Ah, I knew I’d someday be first at something.
I am tired of hearing from politicians all vying to take credit for what is working and assessing the blame to one another for what is not. Please tell me and my fellow members in the final quarter if you are going to open up the country in which case we are responsible for our own fates. We will dine out at our peril and otherwise remain housebound., Is wearing a mask necessary as so many people are not wearing them. The other day Diane said, “Gee, Gord, we are simply being asked to wear a darn mask, not go fight a war in foreign land. Seems pretty simple thing to protect ourselves and others.” Good gracious, the Vice President of the United States cannot even say the word “mask.” What the heck is that all about? There must be someone who can give us a substantive response to all this but who?
I must be an idiot but the premature opening and sometimes never closing of Texas, Florida, Arizona, and other Sunbelt states seems to not be working and now we are going to quarantine people from those states when they visit other states. That should be an interesting plan as it unfolds. I have a vision of state troopers standing on I-75 at the Florida/Georgia border saying, “Nope, you can’t come in. Go home.”
You are correct. Diane and I are both weary of the myriad components of this complicated dilemma. Is there anything positive these days? Yes, we are learning what is important and that is PEOPLE. Our kids and grandkids pretty much consume the thoughts of Diane and Gordy Taylor these days. We want to see them beyond FaceTime, Zoom, or Skype. We want to talk to them, watch them grow, hug them, tell them stories about their parents, listen to them, take them out for ice cream or to a movie, laugh with them, cry with them, and pretty much just generally hang out.
We not only miss our families but also our friends who enrich our lives. I did a little checking and the last guests we had was in mid-March when Judy and Mike Mason drove down from Sarasota to the condo we rent on Marco Island. We spent a couple of days together. After they departed, that was it. Things got crazy down there and we drove home. No one has been with us until yesterday when Alumni House colleagues Mindy Pheiffer and Cathy Onion stopped by our home for a six-foot social distancing conversation that lasted three hours. We laughed and joked with one another; it was good for our collective souls. Being with folks we care about is important to our mental health.
Diane suggests that those of us with partners of some sort should reach out to people we know are place bound and pretty much alone. Most of us need to be around other people to some extent. Maybe not 24/7 but certainly from time to time, we need social contact with nutritious friends who feed our souls. Cathy shared a quote from Brene Brown, a researcher at the University of Texas and author of numerous books: “What we are ethically called to do is create a safe space where all friends can walk in and, for that day or hour, take off the crushing weight of their armor, hang it on a rack, and open their heart to truly be seen.”
That’s what friends allow us to do. We can sit for a moment, forget the travails that we face each day, and enjoy the company of people we hold special and dear to our hearts with no agenda. I like that. I’ll be here on Indian Trail tomorrow waiting for those solutions to arrive from Washington, DC, and Springfield and in the meantime, maybe call someone just for the heck of it.
Gordy and the Fourth Quarter 