All things considered, including the coronavirus pandemic, life for me personally is good, very good. As a backdrop to specific highlights for this month, I enjoyed a pleasant lifestyle and my mental state was mostly quite good. The worldwide crisis continued to mostly be an event to watch from a distance with little unpleasant impact on our daily lives, so far.
I am usually up at least an hour before Pat. I have a large mug of coffee, put on some music and begin reading. With so much happening everywhere, this is very stimulating. When Pat joins me we chat or, better said, I talk and talk while she listens. She has always been a good listener, a characteristic I have appreciated since our very first date. Late in the morning we have coffee together on the terrace with its wonderful lake view and we chat some more.
I read several articles daily and usually at least one book per month. I survey news headlines. I work on my projects. I work in my big garden. I exercise. I watch TV. I do my chores. I often prepare breakfast. Life seems full and anything but boring.
On June 3rd I celebrated the life of my friend Roy Hennig who died prematurely three years ago.
I enjoy spectator sports and this month the PGA restarted play. I enjoy the calmness of the game and the beauty of golf courses. Having been a fan for many years, I am familiar with many of the players. How the coronavirus is impacting tournaments is of interest to me. As some players test positive, I wonder if fans will be allowed back on the course as currently planned.
I am appreciating the sharp decline in the demand of condominio activities on my time and energy.
I finished reading Dutch Girl - Audrey Hepburn and World War II by Robert Matzen. I enjoyed writing my book report which I posted on my personal facebook page with a reference to the Stokdijk family secret. I was disappointed that only three relatives reacted to my post, my brother Peter, my nephew Rene and my cousin Arjen.
I read the book On the Plain of Snakes: A Mexican Journey by Paul Theroux, the Ajijic Book Club selection for June. My engagement with this book was intense as I described in my book report. At the end of the month, the book club had another successful Zoom meeting with an attendance of seven people.
I wrote my second essay, About Narratives, which I shared with the Lakeside Pathfinders. I have several ideas for future essays and hope to write about one per month. I feel a strong desire to express myself in this way and writing helps me clarify my own thinking.
I started a new website project, My Conversations with Henk Wilms Part 1 and Part 2.
I added information to My Worldview Resources - Metamodernism and My Worldview Resources - Game B.
Pat and I had another Zoom visit with our friends, Ken and Trish Lewchuk, who live in Houston. We hope that this will continue monthly. Ken and I also have brief email exchanges occasionally.
I completed one of my annual tasks, filing my Income Tax return, sent via Fedex to Canada as non-resident Canadians may not file electronically.
As a consequence of being in quarantine, Pat and I discontinued our morning walks on the malecón. But, thankfully, we have a treadmill on our back terrace which we use regularly. Not walking with Pat allows me to considerably quicken my pace and my fitness level has improved. Three times in May and again three times in June I ran a 10k, very satisfying.
Near the end of June we learned that a long time friend was coping with a very serious health problem and we are hoping for a good outcome.
Readings
Pandemic Time: A Distributed Doomsday Clock By Venkatesh Rao
The distorted experience of time through the COVID-19 pandemic reveals it to be an atemporal liminal passage between two great historic eras
At our end of the century-long era of Chronos ascendant, pandemic time can be understood as a liminal passage between the end of the industrial era and the beginning of the digital era. It is a transition that began in the early 1980s with the introduction of the personal computer and Network Time Protocol, which governs time on the internet. It accelerated sharply with the introduction of the iPhone in 2007, which catalyzed a change in human nature comparable to the one observed by Woolf in 1910, and has arrived at its final stage with the changes being wrought by COVID-19.
The American Press Is Destroying Itself by Matt Taibbi
A flurry of newsroom revolts has transformed the American press
All these episodes sent a signal to everyone in a business already shedding jobs at an extraordinary rate that failure to toe certain editorial lines can and will result in the loss of your job. Perhaps additionally, you could face a public shaming campaign in which you will be denounced as a racist and rendered unemployable.
From Pandemic to Post-Capitalism by Daniel Pinchbeck
Currently we are experiencing an astonishingly rapid global economic collapse due to Coronavirus. At this point, all bets are off about the future of our political and financial systems. Despite the hardships this is causing, it is a great thing. The pandemic will be a blessing if it redirects our path from where we were heading, which was assured ecological collapse and probably extinction. But the alternative requires a collective awakening followed by a disciplined effort. Enough of us have to focus on creating the alternative. This requires, first of all, space for reflection, which we now have.
The Long Shadow Of The Future By Steven Weber and Nils Gilman
The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed how valuable it is for governments to have operational expertise, plan for the long-term and socialize certain risks.
We’re living through a real-time natural experiment on a global scale. The differential performance of countries, cities and regions in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic is a live test of the effectiveness, capacity and legitimacy of governments, leaders and social contracts.
Transmission T-032: Jon Machta on the noisy equilibrium of disease containment & economic pain
In conclusion, one can expect R0 to stay near 1 and the number of new cases to stay relatively high for an extended period, but with lots of unpredictable and perhaps oscillatory behavior along the way. The only way out is with an effective treatment or to dramatically lower the cost of an R0 below 1 through natural herd immunity, a vaccine, or effective testing and contact tracing.
The COVID-19 Recession Should Be So Much Worse. Why Hasn't It Been? by Zachary Karabell
...as bad as things are economically, it remains an open question why things aren’t worse. The answer is simple, and challenging: we may all be in this together as humans facing a virus but we are not equally in this together in bearing the economic toll.
My comment:
I will go much further than this article and speculate that another factor may be involved involved. All lives may be of equal value from an innate perspective. But from an economic perspective, generally, the lives of those over 65 are a cost whereas the lives of those under 65 are a benefit. I have not seen any analysis of this Such analysis would probably be hard to find as it would be extremely politically incorrect. Nevertheless, it is probably impacting the decisions to reopen the economy but perhaps only subconsciously.
A Personal (Interim) COVID-19 Postmortem by Davidmanheim 25th Jun 2020
I think it's important to clearly and publicly admit when we were wrong. It's even better to diagnose why, and take steps to prevent doing so again. COVID-19 is far from over, but given my early stance on a number of questions regarding COVID-19, this is my attempt at a public personal review to see where I was wrong... I'm hoping that this exercise is another way in which thinking through the situation gives me a valuable chance to reflect, and that I can get further feedback. I also hope that it's useful for others to perhaps learn from, but I'm unsure how transferable the lessons of my failures are.
My comment: This attitude is very refreshing.
Global Deaths Due to Various Causes and COVID-19 By Tony Nickonchuk on 23 Jun 2020
This link updates as time passes, very dramatic.
It excites me when I find a new thinker from whom I can learn much. This happened in June with my discovery of Unmair Haque. I do not like his tone, his choice of words or all of his views, some of which seem extreme. But I think he has important things to say that I want to contemplate.
When I first read his personal story, My Story, I found it somewhat unbelievable. I did a little fact checking and found no problems. Yes, there is a rare illness which seems to be the foundation of the vampire myth. Yes, Haque was a writer for the Harvard Business Review, no small accomplishment.
How Bad is America’s Coronavirus Surge? Really, Really Bad by Umair Haque Jun 29
But if I had to say, I’d conclude: things really, really aren’t looking good. Coronavirus is going viral in America. And what happens when a deadly pandemic is allowed to flourish at a lightning pace, with a blitzkrieg fury? The stuff of nightmares, my friends. The stuff of nightmares.
A Baffled World Thinks Americans are Idiots. Is It Right? by Umair Haque Jun 30
Warning: this essay might make you angry. I want to share with you the kinds of conversations that I have with people from around the world lately. Maybe that will give Americans a window into how bewildered, baffled, and horrified the world is by what they’ve let their country become. If you’re American, you may want to say, “But I’m not stupid!” Fair enough, you may not be. But the entire world can hardly be wrong either. The question is whether in America, stupidity has become a kind of institution, way of life, cultural value — whether it’s the only system left that governs anything at all. The question isn’t about you — the well-meaning, intelligent, good American. It’s about systemic stupidity, going thermonuclear.
How Freedom Became Free-dumb in America by Umair Haque May 9
Why the World is Horrified by the American Idiot
I don’t use the term as an insult — the American idiot. I mean it in a precise way, as I try to remind people. For the Greeks, “idiot” carried a precise and special meaning. The person who was only interested in private life, private gain, private advantage. Who had no conception of a public good, common wealth, shared interest. To the Greeks, the pioneers of democracy, the creators of the demos, such a person was the most contemptible of all. Because even the Greeks seemed to understand: you can’t make a functioning democracy out of…idiots.