"One of These Days"

Maintaining social distance is the appropriate thing to do but for some of us social contact is essential. So we adapt, using virtual means like Facebook to "see" each other.

These channels have their limits, of course. We can't reach out and hug each other, and the privacy of our exchanges has to be suspect, given the fine print that exists in the privacy policies of all of these web-based sites and services.

Intimacy for most of us means trust. It means keeping each other's secrets. It means sharing thoughts and feelings.

As one who has chosen to post his daily essays here on Facebook, I suppose I am willing to trust that company enough to make it a publishing venue. It's free, which in fact means that Facebook owns the metadata generated by our activities and that it will use that data for its own benefit, not necessarily ours.

So what I am doing here could be called trusting *enough* -- that is an interesting concept in these troubled times. We are going to have to trust our elected leaders *enough* to go out again once they say it is safe to do so.

We're going to have to trust the growing levels of government surveillance, which authorities say they need to trace our contacts and minimize the spread of Covid-19 as it leaps person-to-person around the planet.

We have to trust that the information our government has on our movements is not used for other purposes -- to suppress dissent for example.

When you meet somebody new, or deepen the relationship with someone you already know to take it to the next level, should you find yourself falling in love, which happens at any age, you're going to have to replace social distance with social contact. How can we know which person we can trust enough to do that?

***

Yesterday it became public that three members of the President's Coronavirus Task Force, including Dr. Anthony Fauci, are self-isolating due to exposure to the disease. At least two members of the White House staff have tested positive for the virus. My hunch is that much bigger news is forthcoming, perhaps as soon as later this week.

With a country's leadership semi-paralyzed by disease, how will we proceed? Will the states continue to reopen their economies under such conditions?

On the other hand, millions of people are out of work. They are getting no paychecks, yet they were living paycheck to paycheck. What now? Rack up food expenses on credit cards?

Steal a loaf of bread for your sister's sick child?

Try out hunting and gathering as a lifestyle?

***

I write a lot about the fine line between dreaming things and experiencing them. That line is easier to maintain when the normal routines of daily life are in place. Now, with space and time in suspension, we may be forgiven for getting confused.

Did I really doze off when someone ws driving me on the freeway, wake up on an exit and urge the driver to slow down? Or was that only a daydream?

Did I mention a friend to my grandson, only to have him answer, "I thought X was your friend." Certainly that was a daydream. He never even met X.

Where does this leave all of us? More disoriented than ever.

***

This is Mother's Day, here and in many parts of the world. My heart today goes out to the many mothers who are separated from their children and who cannot see them in person. 

I'm sure your kids will call you, send flowers, and make sure you know they value your connection, but it is still difficult spending this day alone.

So I honor you as well.

Happy Mother's Day! From me.

***

Everyone is feeling rebellious at least a little bit. We hate being confined; being told what *not* to do.  But just because you are not out there causing trouble doesn't mean you're not a trouble-maker. Just ask Emmy Lou:

"I can be bad or I can be good
I can be any way that I feel
One of these days" 

-- Emmy Lou Harris (Earl Montgomery)

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