The New American Lifestyle

     According to business newsletter editor John Maudlin:

The New American Homecoming.
It is underway now, and nothing is going to stop it.
A starting point, and something we can do right now, is supporting local businesses. This will help small, independent American companies bounce back from the devastation of forced closure.
Giving our dollars to essential mom-and-pop pharmacies and pizzerias… not just now, but long after things have returned to a new normal… is a great place to start. Really taking a look at where we want to invest our dollars as well as our time is our next logical step.
What’s happening now is a sudden and massive shift in awareness…

• We are working from home, and we like it.

• We are eating home-cooked meals, and we like it.

• We are finding new ways to entertain ourselves, and we like it.

• We are shedding excesses from our lives, and we like it.

• And we are discovering that yesterday’s status quo has left us anxious and angry, and we don’t like it.

     This new reality has a very localized appeal and feel to it. It's something that can be easily imagined by viewing 1950s style sitcoms and acknowledging that their message was one of close personal relationships with friends and neighbors being a good idea. Art imitates life and sometimes Artists are "unacknowledged legislators of the world."

("A Defence of Poetry" an essay by the English poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, written in 1821 and first published posthumously in 1840.)

Corona Corps

     Scott Galloway has an interesting suggesting for a Corona Corps comprised of college age (18-25 years old) young adults.

"The Corps would be trained in modern handheld technologies that provide facile, crisp communication and organization skills that arrest geometric spread. In addition, Corps members could become apprentices for jobs in key parts of the supply chain we now deem essential (delivery, warehouse workers, etc.). We send young people to the front lines of wars not because they are immune from bullets, but because they are willing, see enlisting as an opportunity, and want to serve something bigger than themselves."

     It sounds like a far better idea to sanction a "Gap Year" after students graduate high school than it does to send them off to crowded lecture halls and drown them in student loan debt. After 18-22 months in the Corona Corps they might want to go to college, trade school, or simply take online courses. All are good options but the important thing is the experience they will have earned which gives them a more informed basis to make a decision.

Earth Day 2020

     The first Earth Day was on 22 April 1970. Here is a black and white photo that screams 1970:

     It's both the font on the sign and the woman's long hair which identifies this photo as from the 1970s.

     Earth Day up to this point always meant big crowds of people. Using an app like Crowdcast or HouseParty with us all attending via the video cameras on our phones, tablets, and laptops is not the same. Chance encounters are nearly impossible via video, as are opportunities to speak with strangers. Video has too many missing cues that we need for proper social interaction. How do you easily get away from an awkward or boring conversation when you are online? Yes, you can simply disconnect but this lacks the finesse which we acquire while being in public spaces. I don't have a good answer except to not to expect too much from video conversations. It still stands to reason that an old fashion letter or postcard will get your point across much better, even though it will take much longer.

     From https://www.earthday.org

Earth Day was a unified response to an environment in crisis — oil spills, smog, rivers so polluted they literally caught fire.

On April 22, 1970, 20 million Americans — 10% of the U.S. population at the time — took to the streets, college campuses and hundreds of cities to protest environmental ignorance and demand a new way forward for our planet.

The first Earth Day is credited with launching the modern environmental movement, and is now recognized as the planet’s largest civic event. 

"The Man in the Arena"

     When I attended high school my wallet contained an abridged version of this quote scrawled on a piece of paper. It provided inspiration when I suffered from teenage angst and bucked me up without fail. Glad I now have the whole quote. Then I simply knew it as something President Theodore Roosevelt once said. We had no Internet to provide context and elaboration. I simply had seen it in a book, felt strongly about it, and wrote it on the nearest notepad.

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better.

The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.

      My cross country and track coach in high school, Larry Coyle, paraphrased it simply as "dare to be good." He left us with those words before he went on sabbatical. He never coached us seniors in person again but to this day we say those words to each when we chance to meet at a reunion or even on the street. We may not have anything else in common now except those words and the feelings they contain. They just leave our mouths with such joy that all other circumstances don't really matter. These fleeting conversations never seem trite and always make us feel better for having had them. Not too much in life can be said to have such power.

     The original piece of paper with Teddy Roosevelt's words on it has long been replaced with all sorts of bank cards and IDs. Though I'm glad that I still have the memory of how I once coped with the world. It's reassuring in the current moment where we are all grasping at straws and trying to figure out our the new reality produced by the pandemic.

     Now we all have to consider how we might: "Dare greatly. Know victory. Know defeat."Scary idea I realize but more important than ever. We've been given a chance to reconsider how we value ourselves and those around us. The old adages about ever greater productivity being the measure of a person's worth don't seem too important today. I'm ever hopeful that we will follow the better angels of our nature.

What Makes Life Worth Living

     According to Mary Shelley, "there is but one solution to the intricate riddle of life; to improve ourselves, and contribute to the happiness of others."

     According to Netscape founder Mark Andreessen, "our nation and our civilization were built on production, on building. Our forefathers and foremothers built roads and trains, farms and factories, then the computer, the microchip, the smartphone, and uncounted thousands of other things that we now take for granted, that are all around us, that define our lives and provide for our well-being. There is only one way to honor their legacy and to create the future we want for our own children and grandchildren, and that’s to build."

     My favorite spots for self-improvement have always been my local libraries. Unfortunately, they are all closed. There are Digital Libraries which are not an exact substitute. They lack librarians whose infinite patience is always a marvel to me. Even without a human to to ask questions of the resources (pictures and sounds) are tremendous and ought to help you find some meaning in these trying times. Pick a subject and investigate. Then pick another and see where it takes you. If you are anything like me this will provide a restorative tonic to assist you in future explorations of topics you never heard or thought to analyze. Go for it!

Time In A Bottle

     As J.T. Fraser, the founder of the International Society for the Study of Time, once wrote, “Tell me what to think of time, and I shall know what to think of you.”

     Despite New York state work-at-home orders and social distancing, I have maintained some routines in my life aside from the now daily blog posts. I've discovered I can't go from using a calendar to our current, What Day Is It? without some routines to ground me for the foreseeable future. For instance, breakfast is either the omelet of the day or the popover of the day. Both are cooking skills which require practice to maintain. I have used both chicken and duck eggs and truly like the creaminess of the latter.

 

     Other routines include giving insulin injections to my dog at 5am and 5pm. He simply wakes me up and we do the deed, then I take him out for a walk, and give him his breakfast or dinner. His food is another routine since I make it according to a recipe for diabetic dogs given to us by a veterinarian. This occurs every two weeks and has been a life saver. The food being sold as good for diabetic dogs is filled with corn and would have killed our dog in a couple of months. Two years later he is still around, older but none the worse for wear. He is a natural grounding device and provides unconditional appreciation for our efforts.

Thomas Jefferson

     Today we wish a happy 277th birthday to Thomas Jefferson, Founding father, American President, author of the Declaration of Independence and author of the Virginia Statute for religious freedom. My mom turns 89 today, too.

        "all eyes are opened, or opening, to the rights of man."

     Jefferson was not a perfect man as he did own slaves. No way to avoid that fact when speaking about our founding fathers in glowing terms. He did free them upon his death. Though the world remained the same in terms of laws and lack of protection of their rights. I do commend him for his wine making and for celebrating french cooking in the Americas. As we know he lived for a time in France and became spoiled regarding their cuisine, so much so that he had one member of his entourage trained as a chef.

Vinyl Records

     "You went to the record store. You saw all that you couldn't buy. A purchase was not a casual decision... Our record collections were our most treasured possessions. And within those tracks lay our history and our identity." -Bob Lefsetz

     I can remember the first three records I bought at a record store in Ridgewood. The guy behind the counter opened each to look for scratches, as it was a common ploy to play it and then return it with the complaint that the record was scratched. No returns to this guy.

      I bought:

     The Allman Brothers Band: Brothers and Sisters

 

    

  Paul Simon: There Goes Rhymin Simon

     Grand Funk: We're An American Band (Gold Album Cover)

 

Francis Perkins

     Francis Perkins was born in 1880. She was an American sociologist and workers-rights advocate who served as the U.S. Secretary of Labor from 1933 to 1945, the longest serving in that position, and the first woman appointed to the U.S. Cabinet.

     It goes to show people can do some of their life's best work in the 50s and 60s. Also give her credit for accomplishments in a male-only cabinet. She undoubtably was very persuasive in her arguments and knew how to handle constant interruptions from her colleagues.

     Funny coincidence that CNN had an article about Francis Perkins today, a day after her birthday:

https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/10/business/unemployment-benefits-frances-perkins/index.html

Perkins' legacy includes Social Security to support workers with disabilities and in old age, the 40-hour work week, the minimum wage and the end of child labor. And if that wasn't enough, she also built the nation's unemployment benefits system.

That system is currently pumping billions of dollars into workers' pockets, so they can continue to pay their bills and feed their families during the coronavirus pandemic.

"She was a moving force. Without her, Social Security doesn't exist, and without her, the nationwide unemployment insurance program doesn't exist," said Kirstin Downey, who spent a decade studying Perkins' life and documented it in the book "The Woman Behind the New Deal." "There's a whole lot of people whose financial salvation is going to come because Frances Perkins existed."

In the last three weeks, 16.8 million Americans have filed for unemployment benefits, as businesses have closed in an attempt to slow the spread of coronavirus. Economists estimate job losses will continue over the next couple months, possibly leading to levels of unemployment not seen since the 1930s.

To aid workers during this time, Congress and the Federal Reserve have created trillions of dollars in stimulus programs, which include small business loans, paid sick leave and checks to households.

The quickest financial aid, however, will come in the form of unemployment benefits, which Congress has expanded to include an extra $600 a week for up to four months, in addition to their state benefits.

Perkins created the national unemployment insurance system in 1935 as part of the Social Security Act. The unemployment rate, at that point, was estimated to have remained above 20% for four years in a row, and few workers had other means for recouping their lost wages. At that point, the workforce was predominantly male, and when breadwinning men lost their jobs, entire families often went hungry.

CNN Turns 40

     It's hard to recall a time when we didn't have 24 hour a day news coverage. On June 1st of this year, CNN will mark its 40th year in existence. Ted Turner, known as ‘Terrible Ted’, ‘Captain Outrageous’, and ‘Mouth of the South’ put his money on the line and gave us a terrific idea. The old idea of tuning into Walter Cronkite at the usual time had pretty much played itself out. Not that 24 hour coverage is perfect. as we get a lot of repeated broadcasts and reporting on what people are tweeting or what the NY Times has written. It's not exactly Woodward and Bernstein investigating the Watergate cover-up. I do like CNN when they have boots on the ground and are filming live events as they happen. This is where they shine because there's no need to worry about cutting into local programming or even a commercial break. I think that's what Ted Turner had in mind when he started this gambit.

Bad Hair Days

      I wish I had gotten a buzz cut at the barber before the pandemic because there is going to be a lot of bad hairs days in the foreseeable future with barber shops closed. I'm already seeing articles on how not to cut your own hair and pictures of what not to do.

     Unless you were a movie or TV star the guys in the 1970s looked like this:

     Overgrown and shaggy was how I saw it in Ridgewood.

     On TV and the movies these men set the pace:

     I highly recommend doing a search on hair styles of the 1960s and 1970s. I'm only scratching the surface with my observations upon the obvious. Currently, we have the "no-style" look and "self-care" being done in quarantine. So be happy if you have a proven or even unproven barber/stylist in your household now. After a while it won't be hard to tell if you have had your haircut recently. Of course, a buzz cut before the lock down will prove to be a winner overall.

     Women and girls are an entirely different story that I'll address in another post.

Abraham, Martin, and John

     Lest we forget amidst our pandemic: Today is the anniversary of US civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr. being shot and killed on a Memphis motel balcony in 1968.

     Dion Dimucci of Dion and The Belmonts was a recovering heroin addict at the time. Earlier the group had recorded hits like Run-Around-Sue and  The Wanderer. The tragic events of this day in 1968 inspired him enough to clean up his life and record the tribute song, Abraham, Martin, and John. Later re-recorded to mention the other Kennedy brother Booby.

 

Missing Baseball

     Missing Baseball yet? Have you been tempted to watch Field of Dreams again? We all played a variation of the game (kickball, softball, stickball, Baseball-Off-The-Wall) on fields no bigger than our imaginations. We played when we didn't want to and when we were not good enough to contribute. We watched others play the game and sometimes marveled at the grace with which they competed. I can recall multiple games on the same field, some games only going on when the other games were over or were changing sides. The diamonds so small and the rules so constrained that most of what happened was over in an instant. That's when you knew and felt the passion so well that even a quick inning was better than no inning.