Living in coronavirusworld 218: ....and two brief reflections on the President

Thanksgiving weekend

11/27

Today my mother learned about ZOOM.  Her assisted care facility set her up for a family conversation. She got dressed up for the occasion. And we gathered from Ohio and Jersey suburbs and Harlem. They were generous with us and we got more than a half hour. She was amazed at how she could see us and our inside our homes all at the same time. And now is not completely mystified when we tell her about the next ZOOM event in our lives. And how we spend 80% of our time on ZOOM. It’s always sad when our time ends but actually seeing us helped.

along the Meer

the Meer Tree

in front of Lasker

I take today’s long walk through Central Park. Notice that the Lasker Rink, closed all summer was a swimming pool, is now open as an ice skating rink. 

It’s a good fall day. 

Reflection

If I didn’t hate the man so much, and that’s not a word I use loosely or often, I could almost feel pity for him. I watched him as he “pardoned “ the Thanksgiving turkey before setting it free. One of those annual ceremonials all Presidents do. The kind of event he really seems to warm to with all its retro TV ethos. But this year he seems distracted ,distant, Melancholy. Seemed to look at the turkey with envy. I look at this man who has been responsible for so much damage to so many things who has been camped out permanently inside our heads dominating our thoughts and conversations  for four years and he looks small, pathetic, and even frightened. I could almost feel pity. Almost.

11/28

Dion leads today’s ZOOM worship for West Park and our Open Mic friend Tony Charms (Jose Perez) shares his music. Dion focuses on the first Advent theme, hope. Even using my favorite Jim Wallis quote…hope is believing in spite of the evidence and working to make the evidence change. And he has me play a song to finish the service, and  play my Rest Awhile. 

                                                       Rest Awhile 

After attending Mike Geffner’s Marketing Workshop I join my family’s weekly ZOOM. As usual, chaos in the school schedule of In/out, blended/hybrid, new decisions every day leave teachers in chaos. In the middle of our conversation, I get the news that my friend Dan in Pittsburgh has just died. Of Covid. 32 day from diagnosis to death. I am profoundly sad. And angry.

I posted this message on Facebook:

Today I am mourning the loss of someone I cared about, who was important to me.  A good father, grandfather, music partner and good man.  A friend. There is much for which I fault our current President.  But this, creating an atmosphere where pubic health and common sense became politicized, where ignoring the most rudimentary precautions became a perverse badge of honor and thousands  upon thousands of my fellow citizens have died, and will continue to die for ideology and partisan politics, this above all is unforgivable.

As our family gathering ends, I realize I have been on ZOOM for six straight hours and feel done in.

Gene and Dan introduce his piece

Mark talks about his piece

My friends from the Composers Concordance have one last live concert, in the East Village. After tonight, with the spike and new restrictions, it’s back to virtual. Still, New York City’s infection/death rate remain low compared to the rest of the nation and even Germany. My son still thinks that so many people died last spring that we’ve reached that state…we’ll see.