Should we duck and cover?

Waking up to images on my television of what may be the opening salvo of World War III.

As a child of the cold war, the same age as the child in the iconic "daisy ad", with the mushroom cloud exploding as she picked flowers in a field (see video link in comment below), my generation grew up in the shadow of the mushroom cloud.

Seeing Russian tanks move into Ukraine this morning is what you might call a trigger.  Air raid sirens that blared as drills in my childhood.  I was a tad too young to have experienced "duck and cover" drills... but just the tiniest tad.  The older cohort of my same generation did.  As if getting under a wooden desk would protect you from nuclear war.

My attention shifted from nuclear war to climate change over the years, but you know what?  Nuclear weapons never went away.  The cold war may have unofficially ended yet the weapons remain.  And the worst potentials--just like the best potentials--within humankind remain.  There's a Native American parable that's message is:  "it depends which wolf you feed".  We should choose our loving wolves.  But this morning, the images on my television are not of that.

This could be what those long ago air raid siren drills, which always made the hair on the back of my neck stand up, were warning about.  If so, no wooden desks will protect us.

"The Daisy Ad", from 1964

Say The Words: Climate Change

The news this morning out of Kentucky, and all the states impacted by the tornadoes last night brings my heart to my throat.  The governor of Kentucky calls the tornadoes there "the worst storm in Kentucky's history".

As I see the devastation on my television set, and sit here in Florida, where we are in the path of hurricanes that grow more monstrous year by year, the words blaring in my mind, heart and soul are:  CLIMATE CHANGE.  Say the words, news reporters.  This is what climate change looks like.  This is what climate change is.

And while no one can say for sure whether any one given weather event is the direct result of climate change, surely any adult alive now, who is aware of the science (which has been warning us for DECADES) or not, knows that the climate is changing.  Some do not believe that climate change is induced by human activity.  Some don't believe climate change is happening at all.  Yet clearly it is.  And, for some reason, it is rarely mentioned when horrific news like what is all over cable news right now about last night's tornadoes is in progress.

Maybe the reporters feel it is too soon.  Maybe they feel that it would be disrespectful to the victims, to those in the path of the tornadoes last night, living and dead, to speak of climate change in their reporting right now.  But, to that, I say, NO:  it is disrespectful NOT to talk about it!  Saying it's too soon is exactly like the people who never want to talk about gun control after a mass shooting, who use the same excuse:  it's too soon.  NO:  it's too late!

It is very, very late days now with climate change.  Our climate is changing, our glaciers are melting, exponentially faster than even scientists had originally predicted.  And we'd better start saying it's name, and talking about it, when these things happen, and during all the time in between things happening.  And we'd better start changing our choices and behavior, right now.  All of us, from individual human beings, to huge corporations need to move off fossil fuels NOW.

Climate change is in progress.  Are we going to avoid even saying the words, or are we going to name it, talk about it, and actually change to try to turn it around to save ourselves, all the creatures of the earth, and our awesome environment itself?

The Health Care Shortage

I think I've hit a low in this whole (cue the Grateful Dead) "long strange trip" of job hunting.  My interview yesterday actually went great but their advertisement was false, stating that health insurance is a benefit.  Turns out:  no health insurance.  This is America.  You need health insurance through your employer.  Especially in states like mine that do not have a way for people with low or no income to get healthcare unless you can pay FULL PRICE for the ACA (which only has discounted rates for people who don't need discounted rates, because America--if you have low or no income, you are supposed to go onto Medicaid, but, if you are in Florida or 11 other states, you cannot do that, either, especially if you don't have a child, because why on earth would anyone without a child possibly need health care, per Republican logic).

So, even though the Deputy Director who interviewed me loved me, said "I can tell you, you are one of my top candidates", interviewed me for an hour and ten minutes, even though it was a preliminary interview and was only scheduled to last for 15 minutes, and told me that, as soon as she saw my resume, she said to herself (pointing to it as she said this to me), "that one", we hit it off amazingly, and the job sounds potentially awesome, I CAN'T TAKE A JOB WITH NO HEALTH INSURANCE WHAT THE ACTUAL H*LL.

The media just keeps insisting that there is a "labor shortage".  Really?  I think there is a health care shortage.  I think there is a wage shortage.  I think there is a shortage of sane policy in my beloved country.  I think, as hard as I look for work, I may never find a job again.  Because I have a shortage of ability to take a job without health benefits.  Because this is the United States of America, and your health insurance is tied to your employer.  The ACA is flawed and pathological and doesn't change anything that is fundamentally soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo wrong and unsustainable and obscene and infuriating about our private-insurance-based, for-profit healthcare system.

I personally have a shortage of understanding of, and patience for, the fact that so many in my country still do not grasp that we need single payer healthcare, and it seems to me we will never get there.  Even my beloved Bernie only talks about Medicare for All anymore, and Medicare is not true single payer health care.  But I would be only too thrilled if America went to a Medicare for All system, as I think that is the absolute most we can hope for in this insane country-o-mine.  So, idealist though Bernie is, he's still more realistic than I, and thus he is only pushing for that, and he isn't even pushing hard for that anymore.  He's just trying to get Medicare to cover things like dental, he's not even pushing for lowering the age.  No one is.  Not anymore.  It's like, it's over.  They won't even lower the Medicare age, let alone expand it to cover all Americans.  They now might even take the ACA coverage gap fix out of the Build Back Better bill, because Manchin et al. are acting up again, and somehow saying that because Virginia went Red last night, that means it is the fault of progressives, so we (the Democratic Party) now must veer back to being Repug Lite.

Same old, same old.  And meanwhile, I don't have health insurance.  Or an income.  And there's a shortage of calling things what they really are.  A health care shortage is called a "labor shortage".  Up is down, black is white, war is peace, Orwell was right.

Why are things like this, in the richest country in the world?

Take one walk in nature and call me in the morning.

Cue my beloved Beatles:

"Woke up, got out of bed, dragged a comb across my head..."

Only make it a brush.

Anyway, I'm proud of myself this morning because even though I'm afraid right now, not to sugarcoat it:  it's pretty much abject fear, regarding no income (although I'm okay on that front for a while, but I don't want to be burning through my savings!!!) and no health insurance (ABJECT fear, 24/7), I got myself up and fed the pets, ate a super healthy breakfast (three ingredients, people:  one organic banana, organic plain yogurt, and organic cinnamon--woot!), and then went out and WALKED with my dear dog.

What a beautiful morning in St. Petersburg, Florida!  I thought it was going to be too hot already, as the sun coming in through the windows was already intense at around 8:55 a.m.  But no, though it was sunny, it was also still mercifully cool and there was a blissfully refreshing, cool sea breeze coming in from the Gulf, if I'm not mistaken about the wind direction.

The star jasmine is in wonderfully fragrant bloom throughout my neighborhood, including on my own little fence between the front and back yard, and Hurley and I got refreshingly oxygenated with fresh air, infused with jasmine.  I noticed that a jacaranda tree was also in lavender bloom, and so many other plants and trees are flowering away.

I highly recommend getting outside and walking as the best anti-depressant, anti-anxiety, anti-fear, empowering tonic available!

The jasmine, the jacaranda, the sea breeze, all were saying, in their way, a line from a song that I can't stand EXCEPT when nature says it to me:  "Don't worry, be happy."  When nature says it, I believe it.  "Be here now," it followed with.  And I was able to.  And I'm grateful.

A Little Jab'll Do Ya

40,000 children under the age of 18 in the United States have now lost *at least* one parent to COVID-19.

All:  get vaccinated.  For yourself, to be here for your children (and/or fur children!), and literally for all of humanity.  It will take most of us getting vaccinated to stop this thing.  The two mRNA vaccines (Pfizer and Moderna) have proven to be very, very (amazingly) effective and safe.

I personally, while definitely NOT an "anti-vaxxer", am a critical consumer of vaccines, as well as of all pharmaceuticals.  I am not on ANY prescriptions, which is highly unusual (sad to say, since it shouldn't be!) for an American, period, let alone for an American over age 40.  Because I ask questions and I say no to things.  I don't even usually get a flu shot, because I take elderberry, strategically, during flu season.  So I'm not one to just blindly jump on a vaccine bandwagon and ride, Sally, ride.  But on the COVID-19 vaccines, YES, I am 100% gung ho.

Why?  Because if we don't box this thing in, giving it nowhere to run, nowhere to hide, we will never get out of THIS.  As in, this last year-plus that we've all lived through.  We will never get back to anything resembling, as I heard someone so poetically and poignantly put it a while back, "The Before Times".

Twitter version:  get your COVID-19 vaccination, for goodness sake.  I've got one dose of Pfizer on board and cannot wait for my second (but I will wait, and get it at the 21-day mark).  I don't have human children, much to my own sadness.  But I was still first in line the nanosecond I became eligible.  For ALL the children of the world!  If one has children of one's own, I can't imagine that one hesitating for a moment, as two little jabs in the arm (one, with J & J, but personally, I'd go--and did/am going--with Pfizer...but I digress) will ensure that you are here for them.

Cherry Blossoms

When I was a child
We’d go downtown
To see the cherry blossoms
It was a rite of Spring
Beautiful pale pink blossoms
Against the true blue sky
Reflecting in the water
We’d walk around all the monuments to democracy
To solving things non-violently
To freedom
To the rule of law
We’d walk all around the Tidal Basin
In my hometown
Washington, DC
Celebrating freedom
Today, on this beautiful Spring day
I felt lighter than I have in years
And more relaxed
Until I turned on the news
This afternoon

When I was a child
The cherry blossoms were so beautiful
In my hometown
This afternoon
I turned on the TV
And my Spring went away
My lightness left
My heart sank
Police tape surrounding
A cherry blossom tree
Police tape everywhere
A car, hazard lights flashing mutely
Driven into a barrier
Driven into Capitol Police Officers
A man with a knife
What are they saying?
What happened?
It is with a heavy heart
Said the grieving soul with a mask
The Acting Capitol Police Chief
That I tell you
One officer has succumbed
My heart went to my throat
We used to walk around the cherry blossom trees
We, the people
The children
No barriers, no fear of our fellow countrymen and women
We surrounded the cherry blossom trees
Not police tape
And grieving people
In shock
In Washington, DC
Washington’s at its best in Spring, my mom would say
With the cherry blossoms
Let’s go see them
Let’s go
To the impossibly pink blossoms
And sky
And Tidal Basin
And monuments to democracy
Can we go there?
Please?

What Am I, Chopped Liver?

For me, so much has changed in my life in the last few years.  I think this is true for so many of us even just in the last year, with the pandemic.  It's changed everything in just the space of a year, with some of us impacted more than others, but all of us impacted.

Today, I went to Jo-El's Kosher Deli.  As far as I know, they are still the only kosher deli in all of St. Petersburg, Florida (and possibly all of Pinellas County).  There is a much smaller Jewish population here in Florida than in the Washington, DC burbs where I grew up, and certainly than in NYC, where my mom hailed from.  Jo-El's really serves a critical need in this community, especially for observant Jews (the term used for Jews who try to follow all the laws/commandments of the Torah--there are 613!--strictly), as it is very important to them to keep kosher.  Everything at Jo-El's is kosher, so this is a vital resource for the Orthodox and Conservative Jewish population as, like I said, it is the only kosher deli and store in this entire area.  Beyond that, though, for all Jewish people in this area, and even just for those with Jewish heritage/roots, Jo-El's is a place to go to feel less "homesick" for all of the above.

I'm Unitarian Universalist and Jewish (it's complicated--but really not:  it's only complicated to anyone who doesn't want to listen to my personal roots/history and understand; it isn't complicated at all to me anymore, though it used to feel that way.  But now I embrace the complexity and am grateful that nothing in the two conflict, they only complement each other and make me a deeper, better, more interesting person--or so I hope 🙂).  Anyway, like I said, when I go to Jo-El's, which I have not done in years due to I was always at work when they are open on weekdays, and never seemed to make it over there on my busy Sunday day off, I instantly feel less homesick for my Jewish people, culture and FOOD (<--last but not least *lol*).

A friend of mine has been rhapsodizing of late about this wonderful chopped liver he discovered, and the first time he did so, I interrupted with "Was it from Jo-El's?!"  Indeed it was, which I somehow knew the minute he started rhapsodizing.  Ever since he called it to mind, I've been pining for some classic, proper, wonderful, delectable chopped liver from Jo-El's.  So, even though I've been jobless since September (zero income, as I resigned, so I didn't even apply for unemployment), and I'm super worried about money, I realized that sometimes doing something wonderful for yourself is every bit as important and necessary as paying your mortgage, electric bill, etc.  And I further realized that half a pound of chopped liver (and half a pound of whitefish salad!!!) was not going to be the difference between remaining okay or financial ruin.  So I decided to take a break from all my fretting and adulting and job hunting, and drive over to Jo-El's, with, as it turns out perfectly, the Beach Boys blasting on my cell phone.

Jo-El's is kind of off the beaten path, just a bit (the beaten path is only a block away, yet it seems farther, once you turn onto the little road where Jo-El's is).  It's kind of on a weird little road, on which you think "this is a weird little road".  Your first time going there, you further think "this can't be right".  But once you are a seasoned Jo-El goer toer, you know it is right.  Then, when you get to the building, you further think "Is that it?  That can't be it."  But it is.  The whole location adds to the "hidden gem" effect and impact.

Anyway:  I didn't realize how much I not only needed some CHOPPED LIVER (that part I realized!!!), but how much I needed to go somewhere that has been there longer than I've been in St. Pete (and I've been here 27 years now).  Before the pandemic.  Before all the stuff that I've been through in the last four years.  Before all that our country has been through in that same time.  Before, before, before:  there was Jo-El's.  And I didn't realize how hard it would hit me (in a good way), when I pulled into the little parking lot, and laid eyes on the building that doesn't seem like it could be a kosher deli and store, yet I know it is, and especially when I walked inside and saw Ellen, one of the owners, who was there, just where she was last time I was in the store:  before, before, before, and when I was greeted with a bellowing "Hello!" from all the way behind the deli counter (how did the young guy who bellowed that out know immediately that's where I was headed?), that I so, so, SO needed SOMETHING to be "the same".  The same as it was the last time I was there, before any of the last, surreal yet so real, four years happened.

Ellen was at the cash register, the chopped liver and whitefish were in the deli case, just waiting for me to walk in.  There were little signs and symbols about proudly exclaiming support for Israel, which I appreciate, as so many are so down on Israel, and don't really understand the history, complexity and importance of this tiny country.  It was nice to be somewhere where people do know, and do get it, and do support it.  It was nice to be with my people, just for a fleeting minute.  I wanted to buy a cap that had "Oy Vey" embroidered on it, but it's one thing to get the importance of treating yourself to a little chopped liver, and another to blow ten bucks on a cap you don't need and that would look terrible on you, so I decided, when I get a job, I'll come back for that cap.  And more.

For today, though, it meant a surprising amount to me, that little, seemingly ordinary errand to Jo-El's for some much-pined for chopped liver.  I got so much more than chopped liver (and whitefish salad--let's not forget the whitefish salad).  I got a little fix, a little infusion, of being around my people.  And a little reminder that some important things have somehow survived the last four years.  And so have I.

Thank you, Jo-El's.

Video about Jo-El's