Phone

One of the (and there are many) blessings that has come forth during this Pandemic is a re-visiting of some ancient arts.  Of those that had been hidden deepest in our past is the ancient art of verbal and written communication.  I daresay, my grandchildren are totally unfamiliar with what we used to call "telephones" and forget about "note paper" and "cards".  Their world, as they "knew" it, did not include old traditions and now, they are perhaps getting a glimpse of the world in which Nonni and Nonno grew up in.  They're probably feeling shocked and lost but a reality is a reality no matter how one tries to repaint the picture.

Reaching out and making a phone call feels so good.  I'm hearing from friends and neighbors that they have reconnected with people from all parts of the country and I don't mean via FaceBook.  People are making concerted efforts at learning technology that has allowed for real social contact, seeing faces of people on computer and phone screens and hearing voices on the phone, even if only to talk about the current situation.  Hopefully, we will move on to talk about current feelings, about love and friendship and peace and joy.  Eventually, we will settle into our new normal and talk about the horrors will fade purely out of boredom. We're human, after all, and the feelings of unity, peace and love, will distance just as they did following the World Trade Center events.  Sad, but true.

I have some old, disconnected phones here in the house.  One, I keep in the living room. I put it there after reading about the Phone On The Wind booth that was constructed in Provincetown. I haven't been there to use it.  My plans to do so were short-circuited by the current situation.

https://provincetown.wickedlocal.com/news/20200122/phone-booth-in-provincetown-connects-to-dead

I don't have a phone booth. Just an old blue Princess phone.  I've kept it there for the day I will call my mother and,  taking all the time that is needed, I tell her about the Pandemic of 2020, from Day One of my own personal recollection.  I will talk to her just as I did when she was alive and well, as if seven plus years have not flown by since our last Earthly conversation.  Then, I will listen. Carefully. Just as I did during those endless daily phone exchanges.  Agree or disagree, I will hang on every word, having the wisdom that I now own due to so many of her words.  She was wise and intuitive.  She would have done very well during this crisis.  I can almost predict what she would have said, for instance about the rise in the population that we are now experiencing due to people not taking the need to remain at home, their own home, seriously.  She put the words in my mouth at the moment it was announced that schools were closing and parents were working from home. "The cases will start to multiply here and people will think that the Cape is a safer place, forgetting that we have but two hospitals". Oh, there are so many similar conversations and so much wisdom. I just know that the day has come for that conversation.

It's Sunday, the "Family Day" of so long ago. An ancient ritual. A beautiful memory.
So, today, I will grab a glass of wine, cuddle up on the sofa that she and my father purchased for their very first home, and pick up the phone.

Here's how I am going to start......."God did not do this TO us.  He did it FOR us, don't ya think?"

I will let you know her answer and if you're smart, you will hang on every word.

Italy Wise

When I first heard of the Coronavirus, I was one of those who actually believed that this was a crisis for China alone to endure.  Never, ever, did I suspect that we would also very soon fall victim to the same pathological disaster that it now upon us and is growing more real every day. I was one who shrugged the possibility off, calming those around me who were becoming "viral phobic" with my opinion that the virus has been here amongst us for some time now, not doing much more harm than the "regular" flu, and that our awareness and our reactions were only due to the fact that we had not considered Covid-19 and now that we have become enlightened, we have a name to an illness that once was in the "Fever of Unknown Origin" class. I was wrong.

Fourteen years ago, I retired from my job as a Corporate Nurse, having served a global company for a few years. Years that included 911, a major black-out of New York City, and several rounds of responses to suspected and threatened acts of bio-terrorism.  My former employer, Colgate-Palmolive, is one of the largest global consumer companies in the world and seventy percent of its business is transacted outside of the U.S.  In addition to being home to Global Headquarters, my building also was home to the U.S. Company.  There were hundreds of people going and coming at any given moment and their health and safety were just as important as their product. My ability to remain calm during a crisis was born at that location, out of necessity and a sense of duty.

And, I am so relieved that my tenure there is over.  This would have been a bit of too-much for a woman who has traded her moments walking on Park Avenue, in the heart of Manhattan, for lovely, calm walks on Corporation Beach in Dennis, Massachusetts, a beautiful Cape Cod town.

My current life is not dictated by the need to assimilate information and formulate plans of action for masses of people.  I only minimally miss that feeling of being thought of as "mother" to twelve hundred individuals at a time. But, my current life does have dictates.  Nobody gets totally off the hook when it comes to reality.  I'm fairly done with keeping up with the media as our lives change with each passing hour.  I've done what I did in the past only without a paycheck this time.  I've reconciled myself to the fact that this is new and that it is not going to go away until some drastic measures are enforced.  There is no treatment for viral activity, unlike bacterial activity which can be stopped with antibiotics, viruses can only be assuaged, symptoms attenuated until the body calls an end to the internal war.  Well-trained medical professionals can tell you that they probably learned the basic principle during their first weeks of their training.  Antisepsis is antisepsis. Hygiene is hygiene.
And people are people. Pathogens come and go. These things never change.

My friends in Italy are entrenched in their struggle to stay ahead of the rampaging virus.  Many of them grew up with an abundance of stories about the ravages of a World War, fought in their own backyards.  They are not alarmists by nature and for the most part, are fiercely independent and strong.  I have heard references that tell me that they are feeling in some areas, as if they were living through that war, altering their lives as their parents and grandparents may have during that crisis. This time, we are allied from the get-go.  Our friends across the ocean have a message for us that comes from their hearts.  They are imploring us to listen, to pay closer attention to the approach of what is now known as a pandemic, than they did; to learn by their omissions. They are trying to help us in this new war.  Perhaps it is pay back.

Times are tough but as we have been shown by those who have had it a lot tougher, we will survive this and many more crises to come.  We have the basic principles, we now have the technology and the good advice of friends who used to feel so far away before that technology.  What used to take the health care community weeks and months to figure out is now available in minutes. We are blessed even while feeling damned at times.

I don't have to be the harbinger.  The media is over-run with information and stories from everywhere in the world a the moment making it almost impossible to filter out what we really need to know from what we might like to think.  Rumors abound.  It's every which-way, every single day. But, I do want to share some honest journalism.  A well-respected fellow-blogger who is an expat, living in Italy, has written from his heart and I think it is worth sharing.  So, allow me to introduce Jed from Italywise.
https://italywise.com/the-coronavirus-or-the-blame-virus/


















https://italywise.com/the-coronavirus-or-the-blame-virus/