Love in the Time of Corona {RANT}

"Unclench your jaw.
Take a deep breath."

I saw that advice on FB this morning, and I keep reminding myself of it. Truly, my jaw is as tight as a taught bungee cord.

*loosen . . .  loosen up*

I also took a dose of CBD oil, and, true confession, I poured myself a glass of wine a couple hour ago (at noon).

And now, another.

Here's the Thing:

How can we as a nation (I'm talking the USA here) have watched ALL THOSE ZOMBIE SHOWS and read/played all those post-apocalyptic bestsellers . . . and still be so f*ing socially unprepared for this coronavirus, which, I'm sorry, but is NOWHERE near as bad as a zombie apocalypse.

We should be on this, not just in the most mundane ways---wash your hands, stay home, etc.---but in creative, imaginative ways!

I'm not talking about just the practical steps, which are pretty obvious ("social distancing"), though not easy to do,

but answers to the question, What Do We Do Now?
What do we do instead?

I've been worried all along not about the virus (not so much) but the dangers of isolation. Not to say DON'T isolate/stay home, but I've wondered how we might do it well--help one another not fall into the black hole of fear and despair and loneliness.
(That stuff killed my mother, who became more and more isolated.)

I spent this morning calling and texting Folks in Charge of a couple big religious organizations, asking--

"What practical action plans have you put in place to reach out to people who are isolated:
or, what Best Practices to take care of the most vulnerable are you seeing? I want to know so I can share it on my store's social media."

 You know what I heard?

"We're working on it."

You're WORKING on it????
Like, it just now occurred to you?

Don't you watch The Walking Dead?
No?
How bout the 1956 film Invasion of the Body Snatchers?
No?
The 1977 remake?

OK. You didn't.

I [don't] say to Mr. Person in Power at a Big Church that has cancelled everything (except the stuff the priest does, which they are offering on film)-- and replaced it with nothing:

Well, but.... you've read scripture, right? Did Jesus say, 

"Go hide in a hole and shun all people in need, the lepers and the halt and the lame, the adulterers, orphans and widows, and all those people who are kinda funny looking, and then, even though you moderns have social media,
don't bother to set up a site where people in need can request prayers or toilet paper or a phone call or anything????"

Did he?

No.

I'm really pissed off.
My workplace, which is run by a Catholic society, has dropped the ball.
Here's what we/they're doing:
Asking for donations of hand sanitizer and t.p. to distribute.

OK, that's not nothing.
But it's really, really close.

National sent out a message saying, among other pass-the-buck, namby-pamby things:

"How to help our employees who cannot work is an issue without a good solution. "

No. 
There is a good solution:
Send vulnerable employees home, and give them sick pay.
WHAT is the Society for, if it's not this?

The society goes under?
Too bad.
The society's purpose is not to perpetuate itself, like a virus. And the Church's purpose is not to protect itself as an institution.

I know, I know. I'm not naive, I know that it doesn't work like that, even if it should.
But that doesn't stop me from being enraged when I see its failure to do so right in front of my face.

Like so:
My coworker Mr Linens is sixty-two and has lung disease = he's super vulnerable to viral pneumonia.
He takes the city bus to work.
He says he can't afford to miss work. 

Maybe you think he's stupid to take this risk. 
And, I don't know, maybe he is.

But if you, a representative of the religious society that employs this man (for minimum wage) allow him to do this, when you could make it otherwise?

That's on you.

You know, Vincent de Paul in the 1600s, and Frederic Ozanam in the 1800s, who founded the society named after Vincent, did not say, "Play it safe."
They said, let's go out in the streets and minister to the people.
They took their cues from the founder of the whole shebang, this wacko named Jesus.

You don't have to be Christian to think that this guy had some amazingly creative work-around ideas.

❧––❧

 I want to acknowledge here that I'm informed by Catholic theology and have been mostly talking to Catholics and other Christians.
A man for instance, told me his Wednesday prayer group was cancelled, and nothing was put in its place.
An 80-year-old woman told me all volunteer activities at her church are cancelled. "That's my whole life," she said. Again, no options were offered.

UPDATE:
Ah, here. HouseMate sent me this article from today (3/16/20) by a Jesuit in the magazine National Catholic Reporter  

www.ncronline.org/news/opinion/signs-times/spirituality-time-quarantine 

It says much the same thing I am saying: 

Creative ideas: "Parishes can become centers for networking."

And Frustration:
"Scientists and experts have been predicting a pandemic for years, but the public and government officials prefer to ignore the science just as we are also ignoring the science of climate change."

[This crisis has many tie-ins to Climate Crisis, of course.]

Also a film list--but, evn better, suggestions on HOW TO MAKE A MOVIE!!!
https://www.ncronline.org/news/opinion/diy-edifying-film-festival-social-distanced-and-quarantined

❧––❧

This virus is plenty bad. 
I'm not downplaying that!
But you know, we're not facing a pandemic of Ebola virus.
Ebola is harder to get (which is why we're not, right?), but it kills about 50% of infected people.

And people are acting like ... well, some are ignoring it, like if it isn't that bad means it isn't bad.
Stupid.

And others are freaking out.
I GET THAT.

What I'm ranting about here is people who have BIG money and BIG reach and are barely doing squat.

I asked my Church connection, 

"OK, so you're working on it--and that's great. What I want to know is, What guidance and modeling are you getting from Higher Up?
Not from God, but from the US Council of Bishops (or whatever they're called), or---hey, how about the Vatican, sitting in the middle of the country that is hardest hit, after China?"

"Nothing but prayer," my inside informant told me.

I'd been asking people what their favorite bit of scripture is. If they ask back, I've been saying,
"God is love. Whoever dwells in love, dwells in God, for God in them."

[1 John 4:16] 

I'm changing it to this verse:
"Jesus wept."          --John 11:35

What would I want to see?

I would like to see the Vatican or the White House or my Workplace or ... some agency with money, power, and reach to have ALREADY put out a variety of templates for ... um.... how to community organize in the time of crisis.
I'd have thought they'd have that already on hand, to tell the truth.

We KNEW something like this was going to happen. (And, again, this isn't even as bad as it could be.)

We've had practice runs.  HIV/AIDS. 9/11. Ebola. Hurricane Katrina.

(Ha. Right, and how did those go?)

Maybe I'm missing the coordinated creative response. 

Please tell me if I am, and where I can find it.
I'm not seeing it.

I AM seeing individuals acting kindly and creatively;

I'm seeing small community groups rise to the challenge (like a google doc where you can sign up to offer help & ideas or to ask questions, and another that shows local restaurants that are giving free meals to kids who are missing school because it's closed---except it seems the governor is about to close all restaurants too...).

I'm reading health-care workers/scientists on FB talk about how hard they and their people are working--and that's impressive!

Cool stuff like this post talk about trauma-informed responses:
https://sites.utexas.edu/mental-health-institute/tiemh-talks-prioritizing-community-resilience-during-coronavirus-outbreak

But I tell you, when I called people in charge of big organizations this morning, frankly I was disgusted at the Pass the Buck mentality I encountered.

Maybe they'll step up. I do get that it takes time to acclimate, but again, I wonder how they aren't already there. It's actually their job.

I don't want to be a manager because I'm not suited to it, and I know that.
These people chose or accepted promotions to be in charge. With great power comes great responsibility.

OK. So... that's my rant. I know I'm not seeing everything, and maybe I'm not being fair (???)--I'm just reporting on what I can see.

As always, I come back to the only thing I can really control: my response.

What am I doing?

I didn't intend this, but since I did it, I hope that simply asking people in power what they're doing might nudge them into doing more.

I'm mostly doing social media--putting links and info and a bit of humor (puppies!) on the store's pages---and on mine.

I'm offering to share girlettes, which might be small but is actually not a bad model, I think, of a sanitary way of having fun and offering comfort.

I don't like the phone, but I've been making phone calls.

And I'm unclenching my jaw and taking a deep breath.

Now.

And now. 

And again,
now.