COVID: Four years later: what did we learn?

#1 of 11 - Shock: Over there; not here.

Aug 24, 2024

Recently, I was the newbie/outsider at what was basically a neighborhood dinner party. I hadn’t previously met the hostess so I brought her a copy of my book, Corona Wisdom, reflections and questions from a growing pandemic.

The conversation was lively among people who had lived in the same neighborhood for years and were highly involved in our community and its issues. I enjoyed listening to all the stories and learning more about the background of many of the local controversies although I had little to add to the conversation.

This went on through several courses until the hostess clinked her glass and suggested that I tell the group more about myself and the book that I had brought her. Somehow she had found time to look through it and described it in some detail as she passed it around. I’m always happy to be the listener, but now suddenly I had to tell the story of how this particular book came about and answer the questions that started pouring forth.

I had put the book away as something I did “back then,” something that was now just history. What surprised me was how interested the group was in this art-and-text diary of the first several months of COVID-19, written day-by-day as the world changed.

Their interest and the questions about what we learned during that strange and dark time prompted this series of posts of pages from the book with some updates. (You can click on each page image to bring up a larger view.)

By March, 2020, it was becoming obvious that COVID was going to be a “something big;” however, a high school student in Seattle had already caught wind of it months before and started a website to collect case data globally. His website became the worldwide collection point and he recalls turning down $8 million in ad revenue. He later won the Webby award for Person of the Year for 2020, not bad for someone with a 1.7 highschool GPA. (Don’t miss this video interview with Avi Schiffmann who is now an internet activist.)

Because lockdown left me housebound in a new city where I knew almost no one, writing and making art became my life line. A friend had suggested that I post more art on Facebook so I began to post snippets about the pandemic and putting them together with art and inspiring quotes, such as this one. Eventually, these snippets became a 120-page book.

Question: While COVID still lingers, the “pandemic” has passed. How did it change you?

Note: Shift in Saturday Series: Project 2025 moves to Navigation Bar and footer

When I first heard about Project 2025, I knew we needed to understand what it would mean if it became the operating plan for our country. There are many better informed and wiser people now writing about it so I have created a navigation bar heading: Nov 5, 2024 to hold gathered materials and will add new readings in the footer position.
I will be traveling for a significant portion of the election cycle but still will be engaged in this most-critical election of our time.