Time to Connect

“Friendship is born at that moment when one person says to another, ‘What! You too? I thought I was the only one.”
– C.S. Lewis

Every Thursday night at 5 p.m., several neighbors gather on this block for happy hour. Invariably, a long-haired cat named Pretty Kitty shows up to greet everyone, rubbing against our legs. She lives a block from here but loves to roam and is exceptionally social. So far as I've been able to determine, Pretty Kitty does not partake in the red wine that is the favored beverage of the group.

Most of the people sitting around in folding chairs are on the older side, like me, but some are younger folks with children. As delivery trucks come and go, everyone waves. We all know the delivery guys.

There is no agenda for these gatherings; people just exchange the latest information about their lives as peoples have been doing since time immemorial. It's just a chance to catch each other up.

For the past year everybody wore masks, but recently the masks dropped away. Everyone's vaccinated.

This sort of thing didn't happen back in the Mission, where I lived for 17 years. I did become acquainted with some of my neighbors, however; we'd chat and help each out now and then, but if anyone celebrated happy hour they did so in the privacy of their own home.

An exception to this came about halfway through my time living there when a new couple moved in upstairs and instantly converted our large backyard into a weekly party space. They were in the music business and had a wide network of friends who showed up on a regular basis.

They always included me in their parties, which vastly improved my social situation at that time. When after a few years they moved out, I was sad and the ensuing period was made worse when my girlfriend left as well.

They say bad things come in threes, so when soon after those two losses my job ended it hardly came as a surprise. The year was 2010 and it qualified as one of the low points in my life.

But isolating myself from the world did not turn out to be a wise strategy so I turned things around by reaching out to old friends and making some new ones. For me, and I suspect most people, connecting with others is the key to any real sense of well-being. And that will be my main strategy as we emerge from the pandemic.

It's time once again to renew old friendships and make some new ones. 

That's what is called a recovery strategy.

***

The news:

* The Beginning of the End of the American Pandemic -- The country is reopening. What does the future hold? (New Yorker)

* More than half of American adults vaccinated as COVID cases ebb (Reuters)

* New Variant Posing Threat, as Global Vaccine Drive Falters -- The coronavirus variant first seen in India is rapidly outpacing all others in Britain, a problem for the U.K. and a potential new burden on poorer nations. (NYT)

* Moderna says its COVID-19 vaccine found safe, effective in teens (Reuters)

* Children's Risk Of Serious Illness From COVID-19 Is As Low As It Is For The Flu (NPR)

* Justice Dept. releases part of memo on not charging Trump in Russia probe (WP)

* U.S. freeways flattened black neighborhoods nationwide -- In many cities, black residents were displaced by the freeway-building boom of the 1950s and 1960s. (Reuters) Belarus Is Isolated as Other Countries Move to Ban Flights -- The extraordinary forced landing of a commercial flight with a Belarusian dissident aboard escalated into one of the biggest flare-ups in East-West tensions in recent years. (NYT)

* The European Union agreed to impose sanctions against Belarus, including banning its airlines from using the bloc's airspace, amid fury over the forced diversion of a passenger jet to arrest opposition journalist Raman Pratasevich, a key foe of authoritarian Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko. [AP]

* Dozens of Mexican Candidates Have Been Killed This Election Season (WSJ)

* President Joe Biden will hold a summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin next month in Geneva, a face-to-face meeting between the two leaders that comes amid escalating tensions between the U.S. (AP)

* Former Donald Trump campaign manager and now-pardoned felon Paul Manafort lied repeatedly to investigators about arranging to share polling data on U.S. citizens with a Russian spy, according to court files unsealed Monday. Manafort was convicted of several crimes in 2019. [HuffPost]

* California Gov. Gavin Newsom proposed $2 billion to fight forest fires this year. (KCRA)

* Pope launches green initiative, decrying "predatory attitude" toward planet (Reuters)

* Biden looks to California for next phase of offshore wind (WP)

* President Biden Wants To Replace All Lead Pipes. Flint Has Lessons To Share (NPR)

* Food trucks survived, and even flourished, during the pandemic. (California Today)

* The blockbuster trial between Apple and the maker of ‘Fortnite’ goes out with a ‘hot tub’ session (WP)

* Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced Tuesday that the U.S. would reopen its Consulate General in Jerusalem — a move that restores ties with Palestinians that had been downgraded by the Trump administration. (AP)

* Ask Yourself Which Books You Truly Love -- They will tell you a lot about who you are. (Salman Rushdie)

* As Israel’s Dependence on U.S. Shrinks, So Does U.S. Leverage -- Israel has quietly sought, and perhaps achieved, a large measure of autonomy from its half-century of reliance on the United States. (NYT)

* Garlic Clove Concerned About Being Deployed Into Water Glass With No Real Exit Strategy (The Onion)

***

"You've Got a Friend"

James Taylor, Carole King

When you're down and troubled 
and you need a helping hand 
and nothing, whoa nothing is going right. 
Close your eyes and think of me 
and soon I will be there 
to brighten up even your darkest nights. 

You just call out my name, 
and you know wherever I am 
I'll come running, oh yeah baby 
to see you again. 
Winter, spring, summer, or fall, 
all you have to do is call 
and I'll be there, yeah, yeah, yeah. 
You've got a friend. 

If the sky above you 
should turn dark and full of clouds 
and that old north wind should begin to blow 
Keep your head together and call my name out loud 
and soon I will be knocking upon your door.

You just call out my name and you know wherever I am 
I'll come running to see you again. 
Winter, spring, summer or fall 
all you got to do is call 
and I'll be there, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Hey, ain't it good to know that you've got a friend? 
People can be so cold. 
They'll hurt you and desert you. 
Well they'll take your soul if you let them. 
Oh yeah, but don't you let them.

You just call out my name and you know wherever I am 
I'll come running to see you again. 
Oh babe, don't you know that, 
Winter spring summer or fall, 
Hey now, all you've got to do is call. 
Lord, I'll be there, yes I will. 
You've got a friend. 

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