Whistling Past the Graveyard

Tell me what you know about dreamin', dreamin'
You ain't really know about nothin', nothin'
Tell me what you know about the night terrors every night 
5AM cold sweats waking up, to the sky
Tell me what you know about dreams
Tell me what you know about night terrors...nothin'
You don't really care about the trials of tomorrow...
I'm in the pursuit of happiness and I know
Everything that shines ain't always gonna be gold

There are a lot of different ways this could have gone down.  I'm not going to start with December, when the U.S. could have had an ear to the ground and started amassing testing kits, PPE and contact tracing.  Let's just go to March, when the cat was not even seeing the bag in its rear view window.

We could have really gone with this.  Stay in.  Get groceries delivered.  Chill.  For a bit.  Watch Netflix.
When we flattened the curve and were reporting few new cases a week...we could have moved to stage two.
People could go out with masks to the grocery store.  Maybe start getting some of those routine, medical appointments done that we get annually.  We really wouldn't need to go to Target or get our nails done or our hair cut.  We can cook our own food instead of making restaurant workers take risks because we are shitty cooks.  We could maybe not go to that lake in a neighboring state this summer.  That could wait.

And then, maybe we would have had this thing under control enough to think about restarting the school year.  We could start later then we normally do and maybe go farther into the summer, in hopes of a vaccine by January.  We could do some sort of small class sizes, everyone with masks and the desks spread out, with kids coming in in stages so that all of them get some sort of in-person instruction and we could make sure they have the technology to work at home a lot of days, or indefinitely, if we had to shut down again.

There are a lot of things that could have been done.  But, they didn't do it.  People simply couldn't behave themselves.  Everyone did the minimum and shot out of the house the minute that they could.  And now, our numbers are crazy and everyone wants their kids to go right back into those classrooms, even though most of society only added to the problem we are having now, instead of doing the right thing.

Alec got sent back to work a couple of weeks ago.  Since then, the circle of people I know with COVID has narrowed.  Before, it was stories I read in the newspaper.  I didn't disbelieve it, but it wasn't anyone I knew.  Since then, a store in the market where Alec works had to close because of a COVID positive case.  The restaurant where my niece and sister work had to close down two locations, because of COVID positive cases.  My niece's best friend got sent home because someone tested positive in the bar he manages.  A friend from college had to close down two of his restaurants because of positive cases.  And then, a close friend of mine contracted it in late June.   The circle is closing.

School starts in the fall, our in Georgia terms, in a little more than two weeks.  My district has not released a plan, but I anticipate full roll out, without even limitations on mask-wearing.  I could spend a lot of time discussing that, but I'm too tired right now.

It's been really hot.  I jogged through the park anyway, with my mask, trying to run some of this out of me.  I heard the man, the whistling man, in the park.  I saw him on his bike, whistling to the trees, to the air, to the world.  I could hear him for blocks.

*Lyrics, Kid Cudi, Pursuit of Happiness