Cruel Sumter (Cruel Summer part 2)

To the tune of "Cruel Summer" by Bananarama

COVID-19 and the people are continuing
to gather round
thinking it's safe cause we're not seeing highest of spread
meanwhile I'm saying (what do you say?)
that they're completely insane
Cases are higher than all of but worst of our months

It's a cruel, (cruel) cruel summer
spread as high as December
it's a cruel, (it's a cruel) cruel summer
like winter

Travel expanding, everyone's back to normal
I'm forced to be
the bad guy, not letting some things return again

It's a cruel, (cruel) cruel summer
heading toward January
it's a cruel, (it's a cruel) cruel summer
ignoring

just how high spread has become

It's a cruel, (cruel) cruel summer
(fully vaxed) not as severe illness still
it's a cruel, (it's a cruel) cruel summer
thousands die [in MA alone]

It's a cruel, cruel summer
coming together again
it's a cruel, cruel summer
now you're here
and I just want to run

It's a cruel, (cruel) cruel summer
(fully vaxed) not as severe illness still
it's a cruel, (it's a cruel) cruel summer
Long covid
and increasing variants

It's a cruel, (cruel) cruel summer
(fully vaxed) spread is still increasing
it's a cruel, (it's a cruel) cruel summer
like winter

oh and here's Monkeypox

It's a cruel...

It's Sunday Afternoon (A Casual Critter Song)

It's Sunday
It's Sunday afternoon
One by one we level up our characters
And collect our haul
Will we go where Matt expected us to go
or kill main plot points
How could you do this? [rips pages]
Casual critters, come join us
it's time to destroy this big rune
it's a big red button
press it
but one things for sure
we'll never be distract... oooh raccoon
It's Sunday afternoon
From sleeves are bullshit, to scritches with doggoes,
we all have the same goal
entertainment
and some therapy
make some jokes and role!
(you can certainly cry)
It's Sunday afternoon
(It's Sunday afternoon)
Casual critters, come join us
it's time to destroy this big rune
it's Sunday afternooooon
there is magic and mystery
from darkness our friendship will rise
but one things for sure
we'll never be distract... oooh raccoon
oooh get ready,
get ready
it's Sunday afternoon

You Miss, I Miss

You miss activities we used to engage in.  I miss not having to constantly hear how you miss them and constantly feeling gaslit for trying to be responsible and trying to take responsibility for the message I send and the activities I promote.  I miss the days when people remembered the things we accomplished the prior year instead of jumping to the need to go back to pre-pandemic behaviors.  I miss not feeling defeated at every step (and admit that this may be my white straight cis-male middle-class privilege shining through).  I miss seeing some sort of hope for the future (again, privilege).  I miss feeling good about anything I do.

You don't like the fact that I'm still masking.  I don't like the fact that I have a higher risk of long covid.  I don't like the fact that I have a couple comorbidities. I don't like the fact that the city I live in didn't reach moderate transmission rate or even high transmission rate when we had nearly stalled out our progress prior to the removal of mask mandates and saw the rates increase again.  I don't like that masking has been made out to be some significant hinderance.

You're tired of precautions.  I'm tired of people not taking precautions for more than a month or two at a time.  I'm tired of the media, government, and individuals not learning from 2 years' experience.  I'm tired of people not going past an initial statement, like "this other country has re-opened in-person schools" to get to the rest of the story, such as "along with having constant testing of all students and are also seeing another wave so they're doing a lock down the likes of which have not been even considered in the US."  

You wish we could just go back to life the way we lived pre-covid.  I wish I didn't have diabetes and could go back to not watching what I eat and not exercising.  I wish I weren't getting older.  I wish global warming weren't a thing and that war and genocide and discrimination didn't exist.

Who Took Herod Out of Christmas, A Story Missed

This is the second year in my memory that I have not listened to a family member read a pair of newspaper articles my grandfather had clipped about Christmas.  If you don't know this about me, I'm agnostic bordering on atheist, but my grandfather was a Methodist minister.  He grappled with ethics and lessons of good and evil both in his role as a religious leader as well as in his job at BU as a professor who taught society and ethics.  I'd like to share the essence of one of articles that he would read to my family throughout my childhood and which someone in my family has read at the annual gathering each year since his passing:

"Who Took Herod Out of Christmas" is an article about how the story of Christmas is not just about the baby Jesus, not just about a miracle, not just about a manger, not just about Mary and Joseph. The article starts by saying that perhaps those that lament the loss of the story to the consumerism we see that has taken over the holiday for so many may be looking in the wrong place. Those that lament the loss of their soap box have long been neglecting a key component of the story: Herod. The story is also about evil, selfish evil, powerful evil, a nearly inconceivable evil. It is about a king who, concerned only with his own power, sent an order to kill all the babies. The article points out that this evil has been glossed over far too often in the telling of the story and the figure made out to be just a boogeyman, if mentioned at all. Perhaps this glossing over is because, in the darkest days of the year, days that are depressing enough already, it can be just a little too much for us to handle. But let the thought of the story sink in. It is a story of a king who sent his army out to kill massive numbers of babies. The story of Christmas is one of an earthly power seeking to destroy for no other reason than to maintain its hold on power. It is dark and troubling.

And yet this is not something that we only see in religious stories or in fables or in the movies, we have seen this story played out in our recent history. We've seen atrocities the world wide, with children being separated from their parents and detained in hostile conditions. We've seen genocides. We've seen the powerful of our world demand that we sacrifice the welfare of our children for some other "good", a "good" which is almost always entirely to the benefit of the powerful and not to the benefit of the meek.

The story of Christmas should be told in its entirety and not watered down to make it more easier to take, for it is in recognizing the darkness within the story, it is in understanding the presence of evil and thinking about what drives that evil, that we can more fully appreciate the story and learn from it. And it is in recognizing this evil that there is even greater impact in the other power of the story choosing to be born into this world in such meek and understated terms... but the meek/understated terms is the focus of the other clipping, so I'll leave us there.

Thank you for letting me share with you what has been an important part, and a missing part, of my Christmas these last two years.  One more thing that has been missing from my Christmas is the sharing of a particular song which I'd like to share with you now:  May the Light of Love by David Roth: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IVBYERSwc2E

Often it's the Opposite of What you Might Expect, COVID edition

(to the tune of "Often it's the Opposite" from Psych: The Musical)

Often it's the opposite of what you might expect.

Try to think to logical, you're usually incorrect.

Think with so many deaths the public won't re-elect?

It's the opposite of that,

the opposite of that

(public)                        But we're open

(me)                             Immaterial

(public)                        But we're safe now

(me)                             Inexact

(Senator Murkowski)  You don't think the governor has learned to quickly act

Try to be irrationale, you’ll free your head from pains

Pretending that we’re better now, will free the commerce lanes

Think the public sees that it's not all just candy canes

It’s the opposite that 

Yes, we’ll re-elect the rat

Often it’s the opposite of what you might assume

Think that you’re safe from spreading, I’ll explain things over zoom

Bet without precautions, increased cases won’t resume

It’s the opposite of that, 

My faith has gone kasplat

It’s the opposite of that,

it’s the opposite of that

Little Things Have Many Meetings

The OPENAIR Circus is returning to in-person classes in 2021.  There's a bit of effort going into it and it's not going to be like the Circus I know and love... but it's something.

Here's the thing, I've heard people say "I'm so happy the Circus is returning to in-person" but none of that has impressed upon me that it's a good thing or that I should be happy about it.

To understand this reaction, let's start with the obvious, which is that my feeling is that the pressure to return to in-person classes ignores that some fundamental parts of what makes the OPENAIR Circus what it is will be missing due to the restrictions we're putting in place... restrictions without which I would not be willing to participate in bringing in-person classes together this year since there is still COVID-19 spread and, even if stopping the spread among vaccinated people weren't important, the population we serve is not eligible for vaccines yet.

But there's something more subtle than frustration about what we're doing and why.  There's something that's more problematic.  Such gratitude about returning to in-person ignores all the effort that went into putting last year's program together and suggests that roughly one third of what we're doing this year isn't worthwhile or at least is not as worthy as the other two thirds.  And what we did last year certainly was not nothing.  And the third of classes happening online this year is not nothing.  And suggesting otherwise is not nothing.

Usually, when someone says they're thankful for something you're working on, it makes you feel good.  But when they're thanking you for something you have reservations about... when they're thanking you and it makes you feel like they're dismissing other efforts you feel are just as worthy... that doesn't feel good.  It may even make you feel worse.

And I don't expect to feel "good" about this year's program in general.  I don't expect people to socially distance after having seen the large gatherings of lots of families at a local park.  I don't expect the vaccinated parents to wear masks without confrontation, despite the simple fact that the studies that have shown that spread is lessened by the vaccines also have shown that spread still can and does happen... and despite the parents being in the same household as those that are not eligible to be vaccinated.  No, I don't expect "good" to be something I feel this season... regardless of whether people express that they are thankful for in-person classes.

So, if you're in the OPENAIR Circus and thankful for the in-person classes, you can thank another organizer but don't thank me for the in-person classes themselves.... if you want to share your appreciation for the program with me, find another way.  Show your appreciation by coming up with something else to be thankful for or by following the social distancing and masking rules we've put in place.

As You Return To "Normal" (aka, One Introvert's Plea)

There are a few things I would ask you to consider as you return to your "normal".

Forgetting the potential that your return is folly and that it is not yet safe to begin opening up the floodgates of network, there are still things to consider and contemplate.

This last year has demonstrated how extroverts very much dominate all conversations around what "normal" should be.  To me, as an introvert, this has very much given me the feeling that society does not consider me to be valid.  And that's fine.... but to my extrovert friends, I see you.  I've heard your explanations that it is human nature to not be like me... so, you know, that was lovely.  And to my introvert friends, know that you are valid, despite what the world (including your friends) may be proclaiming.

For those extroverts interested in seeing your introvert friends, perhaps you should consider how to change your approach with them as you try to coax them from their isolation.  Consider making your re-introduction of yourself low key, low energy, and low pressure.  A small gathering is ideal.  Consider also making it clear that you value their friendship and miss them specifically, not just seeing people. 

For those who are posting about wanting to give all the hugs, consider for a moment how that might impact your friends who are not as interested in that form of expression of affection.  Consider adding to your exuberant exaltations of how you will be hugging all of your friends upon sight that you will of course be asking for consent and perhaps that it will be limited to those who you think are into that sort of thing.  Also, keep in mind that your expression of interest in giving a hug may be pressure placed upon some, an unwelcome pressure that applies stress in an already stressful situation.

For those that are super excited to return to gatherings and exuberantly inviting friends and foregoing any precautions, you'll have to forgive those of us that are still watching the spread and are more skeptical about the position we all find ourselves in.  You should also be aware that some of us are watching, are not impressed, and, indeed, are taking notes.

For those that are gleefully announcing each activity "post pandemic", I feel I should remind you that we're not out of the pandemic yet.  We are very much still in the pandemic and if we're not careful, we may find that we extend the pandemic by quite a bit.  I know, I know, you're tired of hearing that and you're tired of the precautions and the CDC is trying to apply pressure to get people vaccinated in the only way they can think of and local governments are trying to get commerce and tourism going again so they can start taking in money and not provide assistance to those in need.... but wishing doesn't make something so and not paying attention to the situation doesn't make it go away.