Day 333

 Today is Saturday February 6, 2021

The vaccination distribution for the coronavirus is underway. We currently have two versions in play and a third, Johnson and Johnson is pending FDA approval. The world is being inoculated as we speak albeit at a slower pace then we had hoped. Partly due to the demand being more than the supply. 

The procedure of getting people scheduled and vaccinated takes time, people, money and vaccines.

This chart shows the numbers in the US. 

The CDC recommends who ought to be vaccinated and then each state creates their own version of it. 

Currently in Colorado educators were moved up the list along with the 65 and older group. Both are set to begin receiving their first vaccine on Monday February 8th. How long the process will take remains to be seen. 

Nonetheless, the creation of a vaccine and current US presidency gives hope for all Americans to begin to see a light coming through what has been a long dark tunnel. Many school districts are considering a model of full in person teaching and businesses are opening in the 25-50% capacity range. The latest news on another stimulus check comes with mixed feelings, but I imagine most people will gladly welcome the funds even as a way to give reparations for the hardships and discomfort the public has had to endure. Though many who are living paycheck to paycheck see it as security and a peace of mind they have never had. 

The president is being generous with his power. With his ability to lead. And with his genuine care for the well being of the people who inhabit the nation he guides.

The current president, Joe Biden, has shown concern and has taken measures to provide assurance to the people.  Most importantly, he has shown them attention.  It is this attention that is giving people a feeling of hope. A feeling we have not felt in some time.

The French philosopher and writer. Simone Weil, wrote, "Attention is the rarest and purest form of generosity". 

Simone Weil, was born in Paris in 1909, swiftly became a writer (although her work was not published in book form during her lifetime) and advocate for the oppressed within society. Using the essay as her tool as well as her servitude in the front lines (she once spent a year working in Parisian factories to better understand the oppression of unskilled female laborers). Through her writing and actions she was able to be a great voice for the voiceless and continued to stand with those who would be crushed under the boot heel of the capitalism.

For more on this amazing women, whom author Albert Camus said she was, “the only great spirit of our times” click this link simone weil

The world in general seems to be trending in the right direction even though some variant strains of the virus are a cause for concern. Most experts believe the vaccine will cover the variant as well. And early results seem to show the vaccines are robust and helping. Death totals are dropping, but whether or not the vaccine can actually stop the spread is undetermined. 

Much still is unknown as to how the vaccine will ultimately affect COVID-19 and the pandemic. 

When that word is lifted from our daily vernacular we will all celebrate and breath (safely and possibly unmasked) a collective sigh of relief even if it is from six feet apart.

Day 186

 September 12, 2020

Quote by Jack Kerouac: “Be in love with your life. Every minute of it.”

Living life is loving life. The want, the passion, the thrill and the simplicity of it. Going through the every day chores and monotony is not living, it is just the part of existence that is required in order for us to truly enjoy living life in the ways that bring joy, excitement and anticipation to our soul. 

To be honest the last several months since the pandemic was declared and we were given stay at home orders, travel bans were in effect, social distance was suggested and all the fun was taken from us we have had to get creative. Humans designed their own versions of fun living. There were so may amazing people sharing their talents with the world. One of my favorites was Sophie Ellis-Bextor and her kitchen disco!

Here she is in all her glamour with her lovely voice singing pop songs and classics from her kitchen. 

Kitchen Disco Episode 3

Yet even now after all these months and many people are back to work in some way. The novelty of creating our own fun has lost its appeal. We want to go see live music and live sports and visit the art museums and movie theaters. We miss the trips to the library and our favorite cozy coffee shop or book store. This pandemic is wearing on us, but we must persevere. That is what we do as humans. The struggle has always been real. The triumph over tragedy is a human way of life. To press on. To continue to strive to live you best life. (or your okayest life as I saw on a tee shirt recently).

It is now our charge to find the living within the life mundane. The quiet moments when you are reading.  The love moments when you are looking into the eyes of your significant other, the one person in life that gives you great joy. The subtle moments on a walk when you are in touch with the world.

The exuberant moment when you complete a workout and you are breathing deeply and your muscles ache.  The simplest moment of lying in your bed knowing who you are and what you want.

The artist Keith Harring struggled much of his life with this quandary as I imagine many people do both young and old. Truth be told it is not an easy answer to find. Harring, when he was 19, wrote in his journal, "I don’t know what I want or how to get it. I act like I know what I want, and I appear to be going after it — fast, but I don’t, when it comes down to it, even know.

He eventually found it through art. The creation of art for other people brought him the joy that enabled him to find love of life and love of self. By the end of his life he was able to accept it all, the life, the pain, the death, the embodiment of existence. Harring found success and despair during the eighties, a decade of time in which he became a known to the world as a talent, but also saw AIDS take the lives of many of his friends and eventually his life as well. Near the end he accepted the fragility of life and the mystery of life to a degree which resonates with Albert Camus’s insistence that “there is no love of life without despair of life.”

Through our lives it is up to us, the individual to seek and find our path to love through despair. Life is fleeting and fragile and thin. It is there for a time in which we do not know the length. A short poem, a long novel, a short film and episodic series, a postcard, a mural. A life few will see or the world will know. No matter. Your life is yours and it will never be repeated or replaced. Each of us has the unique ability to life and love. And we never really know ourselves because we are always seen through the eyes of others. We are made up of the perspectives and opinions of those we meet and impact.

How will you leave your soul stamp on others? How will you be seen and remembered? 

Embrace life and share it so others may see you as you have never seen yourself.