Day 135

July 24, 2020

Last night baseball officially started.  MLB began nearly four months after it was supposed to begin. Two games were played last night.  A shortened game due to rain and lightning was won in Washington as the New York Yankees defeated the Nationals.  Physician and immunologist Anthony Fauci threw out the first pitch. In Los Angeles, the Dodgers dominated the San Francisco Giants 8-1.

Also there is a pandemic happening...

With coronavirus cases rising in 41 states across America many governors and even president Trump, for the first time, have strongly suggested wearing a mask.  The CDC has said all along the primary defenses we have to prevent transmission are masks, staying six feet apart and washing your hands, a lot. So now as the virus threatens to take over the nation the leaders are listening.  Maybe it is just a case of not really knowing.  Does anyone really know what the next steps will bring?  Reopening restaurants and retail was necessary to get the economy back on track as well as keep people employed and paid.  But did anyone know if infection rates would increase?  No one knows what affect in person schooling will have (let alone what it looks like).

When "The Black Death struck Europe... around 1348-1350", it took the lives of nearly half the European population. Spread far and wide, it was not known where the disease would hit next.  Panic ensued. Medicine, ineffective, was no help and "many believed God’s wrath was being thrust upon the Earth." The plague caused many people to react in different ways,

Some chose to look to God for penance of their sins.  Others wore charms for luck to ward off the disease. Many locked themselves away to escape infection and it was there they took to partying.  Seeking pleasure of all kinds. Indulging themselves in hedonistic frivolity of wine, music and dance.  A number of these folks were musicians who survived with new ideas in musical creativity.  Music took on a more complex form and "composers explored complex, secular song forms like the virelai, ballade, and rondeau."

 As far as the COVID-19 outbreak today there is a similar response.  Some have chosen to lock themselves in, some where masks, some don't and some have decided to party on.  Many young people have developed a sort-of a lais·sez-faire attitude about the whole thing. The myth of COVID parties is a bit of an urban legend and it is more innocent than what is being said or reported.  In truth, young people are more likely to forgo the advice of staying away from gatherings because that is what young people do.  As a twenty-something during the advent of Aids caused confusion and concern for the generation x'ers, but it did not stop us from pursuing the opposite sex or even abstaining from amorous affairs.  Youth has always been associated with arrogance and ignorance.   Not all youth is hell-bent of partying like it's 1999. (Remember Y2K?) Some are being creative and creating technology for the pandemic generation. This article tells of some interesting and helpful tools being thought up by young inventors.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-invention-insight 

I imagine other creators and artists (young and old) are busy dreaming up the next "thing" while sheltered at home.  It sure beats going out and spreading your germs around.

The dance of death or "The Danse Macabre consists of the dead or a personification of death summoning representatives from all walks of life to dance along to the grave, typically with a pope, emperor, king, child, and laborer. It was produced as memento mori, to remind people of the fragility of their lives and how vain were the glories of earthly life."