Divided We Fall

Something like this current virus crisis brings out both the best and the worst in people. There are so many trying to brighten the world. I have people positing inspirational quotes or just pretty photos to lighten the day. Got a guy doing a series of “guess the movie” to give everyone something to do and a way to connect.

But underneath it all there are the political fault lines that exist in this country and the truly political who see this crisis as an opportunity. So you have the fault lines starting to rupture. So you get protests and those become an opportunity for people to engage in the worst ways over social media creating larger fractures.

I have friends on both sides of the spectrum. I saw one post a summary of a protest from my home state. It lead me to seek out other sources that presented a much more balanced picture of what was going on. But we choose news sources based on our political filters and they paint the other side as the enemy so that’s what we believe.

I’m firmly convinced that the decisions to reopen the country are going to be made for political reasons that will be disguised as science. The truth is that we don’t know what is going to happen. But we also know that current situation is sustainable. There are lots of people out there hurting. People who work in restaurants, “non-essential” stores, hair salons, gym and other places like dance studios who can’t work because their places of business are shut down. You can only provide so much support. How do you balance that with the additional lives that will be lost if we reopen too soon? I honestly don’t know but it’s a discussion that deserves serious thought from all sides and not the petty political bickering that we are likely to get.

I should stop writing about this because I’m tired of it. I miss my old life. I want to go back into the studio and see all my dance friends. I want to take JoNY into frame and whip out a quick Tango or Viennese Waltz. I want to be able to go into a grocery store without a mask. I want my stores that sell bird food and dog food to be open so I can walk in and not have to call for pick up. I want to go to other stores and just look and touch all the stuff. I want to go to restaurants. I want to go to places like our zoo or the gardens that are filled with flowers right now. I want this to end!

And I want our stupid government to work together and to actually do some things that will help people. I want them to put together a real plan with real tangible goals for when we can start loosening some of these restrictions.

Sorry, sometimes it is hard not to whine a bit. So now I’m just going to fill this with pictures that make me happy.

Sorry but some days this starts to wear on you. Hope you are managing to deal a little better than I am right now.

I’ll leave you with this. From the very beginning of this country, there were smart people who knew that political parties were not good for us.