I'm writing this from my acreage in the center of Iowa. It's another sleepless night where I get two or three hours of sleep and then can't go back to sleep. I got into this unfortunate habit going through a 14-day self quarantine. I was exposed to a friend who got symptoms but couldn't get tested. Without his test to determine whether he had COVID-19 I had no ethical choice but to stay home. My job is such that I could start working from home with little problem. This has given me much time to read and think. Experiencing the quarantine where each day you wonder if this is the day the symptoms show up and each night before going to sleep wondering if you'll wake up with the symptoms, well, it wears on you. Fortunately my friend has recovered from whatever it is he had. Unfortunately we don't know if he went through the disease process of COVID-19. So I decided to get down some thoughts that I might check back later, kind of a diary time capsule.
The diseased personality acting as president. I will never speak his name again.
I don't think the family of the diseased personality acting as president will ever be able to step foot in New York City again. They seem to be a pretty quiet bunch these days. I wonder where they could live in this country after this nightmare. Not really caring; maybe they could go to Saudi Arabia. I hear they have friends there.
The so called United States is acting more like Europe than Italy. We are 50 Italy's with one difference - our borders are porous. Little about our country's response to the coronavirus catastrophe suggests we are a country.
Here's my approach to thinking about how to avoid the virus. I can catch the virus only by going to it. The virus doesn't come to me. Nothing comes into my house from any retail business, shipping company or post office or from friends that doesn't go into quarantine for at least 3 days. I refuse to go into a retail business and so far I've been able to get anything I ask for by ordering it over the phone or email and having it delivered to my vehicle outside the building. I tip quite generously. I stopped having anything shipped a week ago. I'm fully provisioned to last 4 weeks with spare food to help my 91-year-old dad and his family, and my son and his wife who are due have a baby May 4th
Here's a little experiment to try that may demonstrate to you or your little ones why we are practicing social/physical distancing. Light a candle and place it on a surface in a quiet room. Standing 6 ft away from the candle blow a puff in air for one second at the candle. Does it flicker? See how light a puff of air you can make that will still flicker the candle. Now step back to 8 ft. Now try 10 ft. You might have to wait a couple a seconds for the candle to flicker.
I don't think schools should be trying to educate children in a formal way in an effort to achieve grades. I think we can remember the Katrina children who missed months and months of school with no technology to communicate with each other or do online schooling. And yet they turned out to be doctors and nurses who are saving lives today, professionals working in their communities to provide services, and every other type of occupation filled by these children now. Better to teach things that don't necessarily result in a grade. Ask what did you cook today. Ask how did you help your family today with chores. Ask did you talk to someone at home alone during this. There's all kinds of teaching that could be going on not related to academics but to developing humanity.
The state of Iowa had a plan for the pandemic - the African swine fever pandemic. Every county with tens of thousands of hogs in their population had a plan for a pandemic - the African swine fever pandemic. China, South Korea, and most likely all of the southeast Asia countries had a plan for pandemic, but more importantly they have experience fighting a pandemic. African swine fever started in China last summer. They spent months trying to contain the pandemic. It escaped the country's borders. But within their borders it has not spread throughout the whole country. That is an amazing accomplishment. It may be a futile effort but it most certainly has informed their strategy for containing the Corona virus. Experience in the Wuhan area is proof; establish an outer perimeter beyond known virus cases, stop all movement out of that perimeter, minimize all movement within the perimeter, and test test test. South Korea proved the concept.
In the United States, we allowed spring break to occur. Nothing more needs to be said; we are not acting as a nation.
We are going to experience time compression like no one has in normal daily life, except for a few who practice deep meditation. Those people who have been in battle or have been in intense disasters like hurricanes and things of these natures probably have experienced this; I haven't. These are not as prolonged and sustained event as we're likely to have. I know I am experiencing a past where a few days ago seems quite distant and a future seems unknowable a few days out. Not that long ago it was very easy in my mind to live in the past or live in the future with my memories and imagination. I still have those but the present is so brilliant in its intensity that it's very hard to step out of it and into the past and into the future. Some of my anxiety comes from this lack of experience and living in this kind of space. We are going to experience the Zen understanding of living in the present, but without the practice of doing so. Thus comes anxiety. It's always a good time to start practicing, breathing, letting go of thoughts, moving deliberately from one step to the next. Practice practicing.
I think Iowa could have set itself up for an enormous disaster. The state has over 22 million hogs and 9,000 CAFOs. They're multiple elements in this potential disaster during this human pandemic. First is a rural healthcare system that is completely inadequate to handle the population. Second, the pork processing plants are mostly located in rural areas staffed by mostly immigrants and compelled by the perpetual conveyor belt of hogs feeding them to continue to stay open even as coronavirus spreads across the state. Third, most small rural towns have no real food stores. So many residents travel to other larger towns with a Walmart, or actual grocery stores, to do their shopping. Just like spring break these people move into areas and become infected and bring that back home to their small towns. The fourth major issue is the health and age of the farmers in Iowa. Farmers lung is a major problem throughout the hog industry. The average age of farmers in the state is 59 years old.
If the workers in the factory get sick there's inadequate healthcare. If the factory shuts down then the perpetual hog conveyor belt will be like a marching band where the first row stops marching and the rest pile up. If the farmers and workers at these hog CAFOs get sick, even if they're survive, their lungs will even be more compromised. The hogs don't stop growing. That's over 120,000 hogs every day of every week that will be piling up, perhaps literally. My suspicion is this is one of the reasons why the governor of Iowa has not declared a stay-at-home moratorium. The state has had a pigs over humans mentality for several decades now.
Anybody remember the floods of last spring on the Missouri River? Though the Army Corps of engineers says the levies are mostly rebuilt there are still major issues to be resolved. If we get a repeat of that this year during that Great Pause of 2020, Governor Reynolds mistake will be amplified in ways almost impossible to comprehend. There's every likelihood that the national guard will be supporting the people of Iowa during the peak of the virus. I don't know if they are capable of handling two major disasters simultaneously. Many will become sick, have family sick, or be grieving the loss of loved ones. We have 6200 hospital beds in the state of Iowa for population of 3.1 million humans. Most of these are located in central and eastern Iowa. The major medical facilities in the southwestern side of state are located in Omaha, Nebraska but the floods closed down Interstate 29 last summer making it very challenging for people in southwest Iowa to get to Omaha. Iowa has great potential where we see two natural disasters exacerbated by human hubris collide to create an enormous area of suffering.
May you and yours stay safe and healthy.
Plan, don't panic. Provision, don't hoard. Develop resiliencies to see you and your loved ones through this time.
Peace, and may empathy and compassion and courage flow to you and through you.