Posted by It is hard to believe that just last night, I was driving home from my lesson to the news that a basketball game was being cancelled because a player was ill. Less than 24 hours later, all of the professional sports leagues are shut down. The college tournament that was going to be played in empty arenas was cancelled.
The event we had to decided to skip on Sunday was cancelled as our governor decided that events larger than 250 people couldn’t go on. Our symphony cancelled future performances. Most universities have cancelled classes or gone to remote classes. People are working from home. I had to go out to pick up some medicine for Rocco the wonder dog and there was still a lot of traffic. Interesting to see what the stores look like this weekend.
On the ballroom front, our studio just cancelled all group classes and parties for the rest of the month. From the other Famous Franchise studios I’m connected to, this seems to be a common response. Saw one studio that was going ahead with group classes but they would be “no touch”.
Received several emails from places I’ve signed up for. All have a similar message. They are going all out to keep things clean and safe and everyone recommends that you stay home if you are sick. I woke up this morning with a bit of a sort throat which I still have. I’m fairly certain it is just irritation from sinus drainage but I still called to cancel my lesson for tonight.
Over the years, I’ve kind of taught myself to look for the good. Maybe it was just my natural optimism that was coming to the surface but I know this will pass. It isn’t going to be easy. There is going to be a lot of disruptions and economic pain in addition to the loss of life. But this isn’t going to turn into the Stand.
Unfortunately, this is also going to bring out the worst in some people. I hope it is a small number but I’m a realistic optimist. I suppose you could call it self-preservation which is nicer than saying selfishness but you see that in the emptying of shelves in various stores. I mean if you think you need to be away from the world for two weeks then why buy stuff for two months. You’re just taking away from someone else and making them feel the same need to overbuy.
The other thing is the need to blame someone. Maybe this is more an American thing but we seem to have this need to find a scapegoat. A lot of that is political and the whole party out of power trying to use anything to get back into power thing. If there were ever a time for people to put aside politics and work together to see what we can do to get through this, it would be now.
It has been a very fast moving and interesting 24 hours. We are certainly living through some strange days.
Facing Diagonal Wall 