Wednesday, May 27, 2020
“They paved Paradise and put up a parking lot” Joanie Mitchell
In this “opening up” time of the current pandemic, I find myself wondering what has been not only realized, but has the potential for keeping “Paradise”? The Great Realisation (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nw5KQMXDiM4)is a lovely story read by a father to his son about how the world was brought to a halt because of the Pandemic. People no longer were driving cars or trucks; production was very diminished. Then skies became clear again, birds and sea life once again thrived, because the pollutants of the industrial world subsided, so people of the world could see what was and what could be; well, it was a pretty bedtime story.
We encountered a visually idyllic scene last Sunday in Laurelhurst Park, with happy families, or friends sitting together on blankets in a verdant span of greenery. Bicyclists were flying by on paths, most wearing helmets because they are observant of their own safety. Skaters with knee guards and kids on scooters, along with many people walking, were filling the sweet sunny air with laughter, talking and calling loudly to each other. Above there were the puffy clouds floating across a brilliantly blue sky viewed through lacy leaves and spiked rimmed frames of deciduous trees and firs and cedars. It was a dreamy Sunday in Laurelhurst Park with dogs leaping and frolicking to catch the frisbees and balls tossed by their loving owners, calling to them, “Catch, fetch, come here boy, come here girl.”
There were many people sitting on the benches near the manmade pond: happy children and parents were preparing the bread pieces to toss to the ducks floating by. Azure blue areas of the water created by toxic algae are partially created by the human food, tossed to the ducks, that doesn’t get eaten (and, by the way, it’s not healthy for the ducks). Nevertheless, well-intended people continue to feed the ducks, but are inadvertently harming them. There are signs posted all around asking people not to feed the waterfowl, and explaining why. However the bread pieces are what these people are throwing; the laughter and excitement of the children and exclamations are a delight to hear. Can or does good information help maintain safe ducks, a healthy pond?
We are still asked to wear masks as we are opening from the Covid-19 lock down. Yet Paul and I notice that 95%-99% of these very happy people are not wearing masks. These aren’t the people who protest, or carry guns to proclaim their rights and their freedom. Maybe they are people who just want to be free to beathe again. We step back from this idyllic scene. We envison all the research videos showing aerosol clouds, perhaps containing virus particles. propelled from unmasked mouths adding a greyish spray to the image of a glorious day. We are walking on those park paths, as all the shouts and laughter expell from people’s mouths; our cloth masks can’t adequately filter those aerole droplets. We wear them to keep others from our exhalations, laughter, coughs and sneezes. We, too, could be asymptomatic Covid spreaders. The brightness of the day faded as we returned home to once again feel safer in lockdowm.
Does awareness, a realization, help? We hear of people in grocery stores refusing to wear a mask as requested, or someone on an airplane refusing to follow safety protocol, but he/she/they will wear a seat belt. Hear them say: “It’s a free country.” These are ordinary people who wouldn’t want to deliberately harm others, and are generally aware of rules of safety. Many of them display In Our America signs on their front lawns.
Where is the realization that we were told to retain social distancing, wear our masks, and consider the general good of the whole? I am sad that my fellow neighborhood lovers of recycling, enviromentally green lifestyles can’t retain an inconvience for the sake of others, a temporary (albeit seems like forever) committment to the greater good.
Within all of this little microcosmic example of a “Great Realisation,” a dam broke in Midland, Michigan, a dam that was known to be old and unsafe, flooding and destroying homes. There was a realization by regulators about the dam, but there wasn’t enforcement. A slew of dictators in the world, sacrifice thousands and thousands to retain power and fuel their greed, among them our own President. In our country many of our President’s appointees to his Cabinet and goverment agencies along with Senators and Congress people in the Republican party are quite aware of the deaths of thousands of people, but don’t behave as if they care. It seems that realization is not a factor in preserving health, the public good,international relations, or our environment.
I am left hearing Joanie Mitchell’s lyrics: ‘Don’t it always seem to go, that you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone.” Were the the people I do believe care because they mostly make a great deal of effort to do the right thing, willing to do so when they don’t like it, I’d have more hope. I long for it. But I foresee a whole lot more parking lots paving Paradise.
