Lisa Birnbach in the home “studio”
There is nothing funny or uplifting or better about life under the threat of the quicksilver spread of Coronavirus. Yes, we are all in the same fear together. COVID-19 doesn’t discriminate between nations, religions, socioeconomic levels, race, gender, environment, or species. It is after us all.
Writing this from home there is so much I want to tell you. I want to say that if we obey the agreed-upon protocols, we should be alright, but I know that doesn’t remove the terror. It doesn’t remove the worry about family members who are sheltering away from us. It doesn’t protect us against the sadness over missing key milestones in our loved ones’ lives: birthdays, graduations, bar & bat mitzvahs, weddings, funerals.
What’s most frightening to me is the information crisis. In a country that has to constantly ask itself, “Is the president lying?”, we have no idea what the true story of this disease is. We do know that this administration undid the epidemic funding that was in place under President Obama. We know that Trump lied when he said there were only five cases in this country and they were all “getting better.”
If we knew we were going to be homebound for six months, wouldn’t it be better to know now, rather than getting information in dribs and drabs – 2 weeks -- no 5 weeks -- no through the summer—no, till Christmas? Then we wouldn’t book flights that will be cancelled, we could titrate our expectations, and perhaps rejigger our patience for the isolation that has only just begun. (I don’t know about you, but in the good old days, I’d rather know that a flight was running 3 hours late before I headed to the airport, than hear about it in quarter hour increments, in an overcrowded airport waiting area.)
Flying. Vacations. Parties. Movies. Concerts. Meeting a friend for coffee. Going to the gym. Working with your colleagues at the office. These pleasures are gone for now, and we will have to make the best of that. For now, let’s do something safe and call one another on our phones (their OG purpose, after all), because hearing a loved one’s voice can be so reassuring. Let’s connect by letter (post offices are still open), and use the social and cybermedia that we have to check in with one another.
Being angry and afraid is fine, but in the long-run, not sustainable. Know that I’m thinking about you, and will be here, online, for fans of the podcast and the 5 Things blogs.
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Read a book !
Now, sheepishly, I offer my five things for this week:
1. If you like opera, the Metropolitan Opera in New York is streaming operas daily.
2. The 92nd Street Y, with its storied talks, readings, and celebrity interviews is streaming those programs online as well.
3. Various museums are offering virtual tours of their galleries online for free.
4. Books! Make a new stack of the books you have at home that you always meant to read, and start reading them.
5. Love. It transcends phone lines and ethernet. It will sustain us through hard times.
Next week we’ll be back with our interview format. Our guests will be the authors of Rage Baking - The Transformative Power of Flour, Fury, and Women’s Voices, Kathy Gunst and Katherine Alford.
