There is every reason to be hopeful in the larger sense, with vaccines apparently coming, a wiser hand at the helm of the ship of state, and an economy so large and diverse it is almost guaranteed to prove resilient. None of that necessarily translates down to the individual level, where it's the little day-to-day events that make us more hopeful or less.
If you listen to the meta-messaging that never lets up targeting us, there are but two important things we can do in our role as citizens and consumers. We can vote and we can buy.
Well, we voted. Now we are expected to buy.
There is a third thing -- wear a mask -- but the messaging has been decidedly mixed until recently.
The problem with paying too much attention to the macro is we live in the micro. Yesterday we trouped to a beach on the Pacific shore where the air was fresh and clear. in the photo above, I am framed in the diamond formed by two of my grandsons.
What I've been musing about recently is to what degree each day we live in these times is a microcosm of the whole. It's so difficult to remove ourselves from the context -- McLuhan said "the medium is the message" -- by analogy "you are the times you live in."
Yet when I go to a place like that beach, which is called Limantour, part of the Pt. Reyes National Seashore, its rhythms take me back 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 years. In other word, back over many "times." The long perfect waves crash just as they did back then, the strands of kelp wash up on the beach, as do pieces of lumber lost at sea, chunks of old sunken boats, crab shells and the occasional whale bone.
It's exactly the same whether Nixon, Carter, Reagan, Clinton, Obama or Trump is in the White House. And whether I'm buying or living like a monk.
I walked down to the water's edge and stared out to the west, at the lovely endlessness. I've flown over that ocean many times, and I can taste and smell the places out there -- Hawaii, Tahiti, Australia, Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan, Malaysia, Indonesia and many other places.
Since Pt. Reyes is a protected zone, it has a timelessness to it that the built-out places lack. The city of San Francisco always feels like the same city, but the pieces of it change all the time.
That is the rather tortured analogy I am seeking about our lives-- we are here, for a while, but the system that contains us, like the physical world, goes on and on with or without us.
What was terrifying to everyone paying attention about Trump's reign was not so much his impact on our little lives but on our system of laws and conventions. Even his unwillingness to concede means we have no closure on the election. Biden won but the election remains unfinished.
That is Trump's poisonous legacy.
***
It's my sister Carole's birthday -- Happy Birthday, Carole!
The other headlines:
*Pushed by Pandemic, Amazon Goes on a Hiring Spree Without Equal -- The company has added 427,300 employees in 10 months, bringing its global work force to more than 1.2 million. (NYT)
* The Virus Won’t Stop Evolving When the Vaccine Arrives -- The coronavirus is not a shape shifter like the flu virus, but it could become vaccine resistant over time. That prompts researchers to urge vigilance. (NYT)
* Joe Biden won rapidly diversifying Georgia partly because Asian Americans mobilized to an unprecedented degree. With two critical Senate runoffs approaching, these voters could also boost Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock. (WashPo)
* Jailed, Exiled and Silenced: Smothering East Africa’s Political Opposition -- In several countries, entrenched leaders are taking advantage of coronavirus restrictions and a world distracted by the pandemic to clamp down hard on prominent political opponents. (NYT)
* Covid Overload: U.S. Hospitals Are Running Out of Beds for Patients -- As the coronavirus pandemic surges across the country, hospitals are facing a crisis-level shortage of beds and staff to provide adequate care for patients. (NYT)
* Iran’s president blames Israel for nuclear scientist’s killing, vows response at the ‘right time’ (WashPo)
* Severe fire danger for Australia as temperatures smash records (Reuters)
* E.P.A.’s Final Deregulatory Rush Runs Into Open Staff Resistance -- As President Trump's Environmental Protection Agency rushes to complete its regulatory rollbacks, agency staff, emboldened by the Biden victory, moves to stand in the way. (NYT)
***
Back to the seashore:
Why are you so far away from me?
I need help
And you're way across the sea
I could never touch you
I think it would be wrong
I've got your letter
You've got my song
-- Weezer
-30-
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