Remaining Consistent

How to remain morally consistent in a pandemic

I would not accept your right to pollute my breathing space to enrich your own life, nor would it be consistent to allow any individual to seed illness on me without my consent.

I’ve met some very inconsiderate people these past few days who have violated my personal office space and encroached my social safe zone. After a few intrusions my office is now locked.

The fact is nobody knows if they have it or not til it manifests, but many are openly pretending no exposure to the virus and have put me at risk.

In what universe is it morally acceptable to condemn others to death on the grounds that one himself is supposedly willing to die?

Avoiding the virus

Picnic #4

Author: jimoeba

Alternatives to big box religions and dogmas

66 thoughts on “Remaining Consistent”

  2. Yesterday, Biker Dude and I watched as four families gathered together at someone’s home on our street. Range of ages from 60’s to two children about 7 and 5. Ten people in total that I counted. We actually were gob smacked. The two little children came out with their mother and skipped across the street and then hugged all the adults gathered there. Everybody laughing , no where near 2 metres or 6 feet apart as instructed. Bringing out chairs to sit on and not realizing the people putting out the chairs could be contaminating the chair or the people sitting in the chairs could be leaving contamination behind. We just don’t get it.

    We commented how the virus can spread through community without any regard for those who are doing their best to follow health and safety guidelines.

    Nature sure helps doesn’t it. 🙂

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    1. We chose this area because it has the best air quality. I’ve got three high risk people in my family. So far no viruses spotted at the high camp. It is nice to get out every day.

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  3. Great picture of you two! There are some drawbacks to being so isolated, but during a time like this, I think many of us envy you being “away from the crowds.” Stay safe.

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  4. I think many people are taking this way too lightly. Although the primary risk is to older folks with comorbidities, the truth is even younger people can get extremely sick as well as be vectors for the disease.

    Jim, the pics are so sweet. Your little girl is adorable. Everyone stay safe and well. 🙂

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  6. I have my partner, and we have 5 cats. We cannot avoid all contact (grocery shopping mainly), but we are doing our best to keep it minimal. I don’t find it hard at all.My partner does a bit, but she manages. Phones are useful items.

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    1. It’s picnics, plural with an s. My daughter is quite the event planner. The webkins and all accessories find a spot in the pack.

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    1. We typically go out a few times a week on short explores or to shoot arrows or her .22 anyway. This past week we’ve found some super secret spots (shhh) We have a camp up there too but the nights are still to cold for us. She could stay all day anywhere and be content as long as it’s outside.

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  12. Beautiful photos! It really is a blessing to live in open space. We feel pretty free to walk in our neighborhood, so I take the dog every day. We have some confirmed cases in our little burg and the whole state is under stay-at-home orders, so a weekly grocery trip is the most fraught time of our lives right now. Stay well!

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    1. Thanks Eilene. You as well. The only problems with the photos is you can still see my face. And the fact that there’s 5000 in my camera roll and I can never find what I’m looking for.

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  13. You did the right thing by locking the door. Good for you. We, over here in Alabama and Mississippi, are floundering beneath the stupidity of our governors. Fortunately we have a few mayors who have some sense, but ultimately, as you have so wisely shown, it comes down to the individual.
    What a lovely pic!

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  15. Don’t die Jim! I’m mean if you do have to go towards the light… I’ll say nice things about you at your funeral. Assuming its live streamed on zoom (or similar). Obviously this may require me to lie. But I’m morally flexible that way.

    In all seriousness though… this whole thing has been… an eye opening experience. People are vile.

    We are in full lockdown here in South Africa. 21 days. Only allowed out of our homes to buy food and seek medical assistance. I have a friend (my best man at my wedding) is a doctor in NY. He is completely overwhelmed at the moment. Says, its insane how bad things have gone and how massively inept the local and federal government has been.

    Stay safe. Looks like an awesome place to hide out from the world.

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  16. Nice looking kid. Can’t say much for the old fart next to her, but hey … none of would win a beauty contest any more. 😉
    Lock down from today here in SA. Never felt it so quiet in all the years I have lived here.
    Not a single aircraft has flown over, nor car drove by and only heard the bin men’s truck as per usual on Friday morn.
    Police made their first arrest last night just after midnight – raided a night club in Jo’burg.
    As infections rose above 1000, first recorded death in Western Cape.

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          1. We are up in Observatory. So far no problems. Very very quiet … as you will know. Haven’t heard a single aircraft overhead and we usually hear quite a few during the day.

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            1. I’m in Ferndale. I saw an army patrol (on foot) go past my house earlier. But otherwise it’s been quite nice.

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            2. If the same patrol comes up here and knocks on my gate I’ll tell them I don’t know you.
              To quote Life of Brian ….
              ”Solidarity , Reg, solidarity”

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            5. Ha ha. You do make a valid point. Most of them aren’t even sure where they put down their rifles (before having a nap)

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    2. She is thē kid. She grew up barefoot in the jungle and is still adapting here. Yesterday we threw the axes, shot the bows and her .22, and had a little backcountry picnic. Ended the night with a bon fire. I really enjoy being home with her and this virus has had its upside. She’ll keep me young or kill me, but I won’t go down without enjoying the fall. It has been so quiet it’s like it should be, but strangely so

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      1. I saw the movie, but didn’t it end tragically? Or is my memory faulty?

        Either way, I concur that she will look back on the times spent with dad with fondness.

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  18. Pretty much everything is closed. I watched chaos ensue at the stores, but I prepared before the worst of this. I am working from home now, I was one of the last people out of the office. That mess uprooted most of my plans and my daily life for weeks. Bunch of people got laid off or lost their jobs, all over the place. Unemployment was already bad enough around here. There isn’t much to be happy about. The only thing I can think of is that this virus probably isn’t as bad as the fear mongering about it makes it seem. It isn’t the apocalypse, but I have heard that quite a bit lately.

    Think about this. Hubei province in China is more populous than any state in the US, having around 60,000,000 people. Wuhan is a major city bigger than Chicago. Only around 1/1000 people there are known to have been effected at all by this virus, and only a small fraction of those had severe cases. Granted, that was with measures put in place by the Chinese state. It doesn’t make it feel better when you have people with you that you know are vulnerable, but it does put the overall threat into perspective. Over in Asia things seem to be slowing down. I don’t have much confidence in the American government’s approach so far.

    I think that the coronavirus may have already gone around on a larger scale than anyone knows(lack of testing), at least in some areas. Back in February, I got really sick. I thought it was only a nasty flu at the time, I haven’t been sick like that in years. I had to miss days of work for it, and I had a cough for like 2 weeks after I got over the fever and the pains. Ate whole bags of cough drops in that time period. It was something spreading around the office, because it put down a lot of my section for weeks, and many others as well. For that whole month, on any given day there were many absences over sickness. I am in management, so I know who is absent and why. And even after things started to return to “normal”(at the beginning of March, ironically), people were still recovering and still had residual coughs. I know that at least two older people in the office even went to the hospital over this sickness(they ended up being gone for over two weeks), but they are well now. My sister had something really bad too(and she works in the same town). High fever for three days, coughed and coughed for a week, residual cough for another week. She coughed so much early on that she actually had a small blood vessel rupture in her eye.

    I have found that this is the case for other people I know. A nurse I know told me that something bad had been going around for a while, lots of cases of some kind of really bad flu. I commute to where I work, and there are many Chinese there. Most are students at the university. And there is another college town not far away, where multiple colleges have many Chinese students. Many of these go back and forth to China on every break from coursework. A bunch of Chinese students had come back around the time when this whole mess was starting. I know that other workplaces had a rash of sicknesses, absences, and even hospitalizations, right around the same time. And looking around the internet, I find others with nearly the same story.

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    1. I got pretty sick at that time too and missed some days. The coughing continues. I never noticed having a fever though which was odd with a chest full of garbage. Glad you made it. Nice to see you K

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      1. I am worried about my mother. She definitely fits the profile of someone vulnerable to this. I finally got her to listen and take some precautions. My grandfather can has trouble getting around on his own. I am afraid that both are in danger just from visiting the doctor. The doctors and hospitals are already rescheduling a bunch of appointments and preparing for a bunch of coronavirus cases. People want tested, but can hardy get a test. In one case I know of the hospital staff told people to go home, there is nothing to test with. I think waiting there for a test is pointless anyway. You are likely to go there and get coronavirus if you didn’t already have it.

        I was under a lot of stress when this all started. But now that I have not even left home for 10 days straight, I am thinking more clearly and making some observations. This panic shows just how fragile social structures and niceties can be. People are stuck between panic over this disease, and dread of the economic future. It is going to be bad even after this virus clears up. That stimulus money we are supposed to get won’t be any good when bills come due next month. I have listened to some politicians already say, in so many words, that the risk of people dying is not worth lowering the stock market. That is not going to give people any more faith in the system. It will seem more and more like a bad joke.

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    2. My other-half and I join the crowd. I got hit first around mid-February. I tend to be relatively healthy, so mine was mostly a really bad cough and generally feeling miserable. Then my o/h got it. He has childhood asthma so colds always hit him pretty hard … but this time he had night sweats, severe breathing problems, and hard coughing. One night he woke up and didn’t know where he was, almost walked into a wall. He’s a veteran and considered going to the VA, but was concerned about others that were probably sick as well so chose to fight it out at home. He didn’t start feeling “normal” for about three weeks. BTW, we’re both in the high risk age bracket.

      The only bad part is we can’t be sure it was the virus so we continue to take precautions — more so because of his health — and that’s somewhat of a pain. Nevertheless, since we can’t be sure … better safe than sorry.

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  19. You may be right about it already having gone around once. I suffered the same symptoms (aches and pains, severe cough, etc,) for four or five days days in late January and wrote it off as a regular flu bug. It came as quite a surprise because it was the first time I’ve been that sick in over a decade.

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  20. This thing is finicky and as far as I’m concerned there truly isn’t enough info on it. An infant died from this in King county Washington. An infant! Now, where on Earth do we go from here. A friend had a baby last Wednesday. She’s home now but who knows what she brought home with her. This is all so crazy! Stay safe, Jim.

    Pat

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          1. Aw, thanks Jim! The trip was booked for May, but even that might be too close to make it. I’m going to hold out through April and see what happens. Hopefully I can still take you up on this when I get there! Never know what might happen. It’s good to know I won’t be totally isolated in a crisis. ☺️

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