more ,'n', more

The tale of a coronavirus pandemic is so rife that my older son told me he had sworn off social media a couple of times. Not a conversation or bit of information seems to arise without some reference to a disease that has swept the globe. There is no where to turn, no where to run. The I'm-never-going-to-die presumption of the young and healthy and millennial has run smack into the potential for infection, which is said to be disproportionately dangerous for the very young and those elderly people disposed to pre-existing conditions.

On the highway, when my wife and I went for a drive this morning around nine, there were few cars, though it's a Christian rest day. Hunkered and bunkered and the TV is full of one bit of frazzled news or another. Schools are closed, large gatherings like sporting events have been blockaded, Italy is on lockdown, and kids who may get their one good meal per day in school are under threat. People are advised to wash and rewash their hands and yet ... imagine it ... money is touched by a thousand thousand hands....

Donald Trump is lost in the muddle. His braggadocio looks weak. His lack of willingness or capacity to lead are shown up in the shadows of scientific facts. His willingness to find someone else to blame falls flat. Crowds are frowned on and yet everywhere there are crowds -- at airports and other venues. Proximity is contraindicated and yet huddling together is the longing.

It reminds me of a time in the army when the one thing that really scared me was a gas attack -- when the very air was rife with threat. News outlets are filled with a whole lot of nothing to say. News casters strain mightily, but ... it just doesn't work. No one knows. There's no buying our way out of sickness and death.