Tag Archives: pandemic

History

Mr. Robinson, or Mr. Rob as he encouraged and allowed us to refer him as (rest his soul), always had my vote for favorite and memorable teachers in grade school.  He taught history, and if school subjects were NBA teams, history would never win the Finals let alone make the playoffs in the battle for children’s favorite subjects.  And every now and then some jackass kid would prove this by interrupting the class with the same question:

“Man why do we gotta learn history for, Mr. Rob?” To which Mr. Rob replied in his signature booming voice complete with a slight hint of twang, a bit of annoyance and a whole lot of pride:

“To learn from our mistakes!”  With five simple words, Mr. Rob provided one potent answer.  Since then I’ve learned to weave this lesson into the fabric of my life sleeve.  At the top of the list of things that humans are really good at, it will always read “being flawed.”  Hence we will never stop making mistakes, myself especially.

And in the year of 2020, while I don’t care to list all the mistakes here, I will say that we may have made more than we’ve ever had as a society. And for some damn reason, we kept making those same mistakes and locked it on repeat, without a shuffle button in sight.

We’ve got a long way to go. But I do come with hopeful news – the next step forward starts within your own skin. It’s kind of like that pre-flight safety speech you hear before your plane takes off where they say, and I paraphrase, “In the event of a decompression, masks will descend from the heavens to save your lives. Put on the damn mask in front of you first before you attempt to assist someone else.”

In short, help yourself before helping others.  Five simple words, one potent solution.  Though I assure you – as you may already understand – this is not as simple as it sounds, unfortunately.

I will still ask you to try, or if you’re like me, keep trying.  While we have so much we’d like to forget about this year, I rather take a different approach and remember it all, down to the dates and time of when it happened and the color of your shirt you had on right when you learned about it.  Remember how you felt, what you felt.  Be honest about what you did, and how you reacted.  If there are signs of regret, find a different vantage point, see through different lenses to see what you could have done otherwise.  If fate offers you another chance, know that having the guts to be different will often yield better results.

Rinse (with soap and water for at least 20 seconds).

Repeat.

Contrary to popular belief, we actually do have the wherewithal to refinance a morally bankrupt society and in turn, redefine and reinvent human kindness.  And you don’t have to look no further beyond the last twelve-month dumpster fire.  That’s a win, right?  You don’t have to go as far back as 1964 or 1918, or read up on the Spaniards or small ass Napoleon’s life.  Nope, just January 1, 2020.

Won’t cost you a penny.  Five simple words, one genuine truth.

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Swans

So it took a pandemic to get me to log back on my blog.  Sucks, right?

Not my writing, the pandemic.  Obviously.

I’m like many of you – I don’t have any answers to this.  I’m as worried and hopeful, fearful and fearless as anyone else.  Just the other day I ordered what I call a stress burrito.  It’s exactly what you think it is – a burrito to devour while under stress.  I don’t know if it was the greatest burrito I ever had, but it was quite memorable.  So I’m definitely no expert in the field, I’m not Brad Pitt from World War Z.  Especially after eating a burrito.

What I’ve been asking myself throughout this ordeal is something that you might be asking too – is this the apocalypse?

All I can confidently say at this point is that, I hope it’s not.  There’s many things I’d still like to accomplish, like throwing a first pitch at a baseball game, see Tokyo, catch Thundercat live ten more times, go off-roading in Toyota Landcruisers in Borneo.  I’m sure many of you have list of things you’d like to continue to check off as well.  But most of us are in quarantine, and this has become a global effort to slow and cease the spread of *The Rona; the state of Florida seems to have missed this memo.  Our lives have been limited to the confines of how far out our walls and ceiling go, thus severely limiting our movements and reach.

Hence, aforementioned stress burrito.

In my confines I have put together a soundtrack of this possible apocalypse.  I’m titling it, “Swan Songs.”  In ten total tracks, this is how I see it go down:

  1. Man in the Mirror, Michael Jackson
  2. We Didn’t Start the Fire, Billy Joel
  3. I Like America & America Likes Me, The 1975
  4. The Man Comes Around, Johnny Cash
  5. Turn Back Time, Cher
  6. Let You Go, Chainsmokers
  7. End of the Road,  Boyz II Men
  8. God Bless the Dead, 2Pac
  9. Lost Cause, Beck
  10. Good Riddance, Green Day

The best albums tell a story from one track to another, not many musicians take you on this ride anymore.  Swan Songs starts off hopeful with exuberant beliefs that we can change the world, and it starts with our own first steps:

1. I’m gonna make a change, for once in my life.

Then, it goes into an idea that – hey – perhaps change wasn’t going to be enough anyway because:

2. We didn’t start the fire, it was always burning since the world was turning… no we didn’t light it, but we tried to fight it.

Once we realize everything is burning, fear comes into play.  Fear of what?

3. I’m scared of dying, is that on fire?

That only means one thing, as Cash eloquently told us, that death is around the corner:

4. The hairs on your arm will stand up, at the terror in each sip and in each sup.

We’re human.  We get filled with regret with a quick and simple blink of an eye.  With the reaper looming upon us, we are likely to think of the past:

5. If I could turn back time, if I could find a way…

And hope that there could be a way to return to those times:

6. Holding a room for you.

But, hope is lost:

7. Although we’ve come to the end of the road.  Still, I can’t let go.

And we’re all fucking dead:

8. Don’t worry if you see God, first tell him shit got worse.

But hey, as Billy Joel said in track 2, we didn’t start the fire.  So maybe having hope to change in the first place was a game played by fools?

9. Baby, you’re a lost cause.

Whether or not that’s the case, our time on this planet was always limited to begin with.  This isn’t measured by the amount of breaths you take:

10. I hope you had the time of your life.

So, if this is the apocalypse, just remember – it was probably Kim Kardashian’s fault.  What’s your ten songs for the apocalypse?

Hope to see you on the other side.

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*This is what the cool kids on Twitter call COVID-19.  Twitter is a free website.

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