You Can't Stop Physics...as expected.

 The pandemic is now raging and has begun a massive crescendo into thousands of people both contracting and dying ....as was expected, but didn't have to happen.

There are now 251,445 deaths from the virus and a total of 11,620,037 cases. 1,500 people are dying each day and 160,000 new infections daily, with both the number of both expected to rise with what is being called a very dark time ahead. There is no doubt that we will hit 300,000 total deaths within, if not before, only thirty days from now. I have little doubt that, by the time this all quiets down to where a small amount of a normal life returns, we will hit over half a million deaths. But,....why?

The president was voted out of office with the news happening about two weeks ago. There was literally about 72 hours of quiet before the dam began to swell and finally break with a flood of push-back from the present administration to show that the election was somehow not legal and that the president should remain in office. This is literally half, if not more, of what the news is broadcasting. I will not bother to waste time describing what is going on. The history books will have more to say about it and in greater detail.

Another fraction of the news is about how the present administration, as well as all people within the party, are denying the incoming administration the ability to start setting up for a smooth transition. While no one ever really cared about this before in any real way, this delay (which has never happened before), will have a major impact on helping with the virus after the new president is sworn in. All information and funds are being withheld from the incoming administration so, if this continues, there will be a lag time before things can change in terms of financial aid to the people, a nationwide mask mandate, and the distribution of the vaccines that are being run through their final stages of testing. Each day, each week that this hand-off of power is delayed means thousands of more people getting sick and dying.

I need to also state that food banks are now running dry. There are lines to get to them that are the same as the shots of food lines in the 1930's Depression Era, with the 21st century change of the line being in cars. The economy is in crisis and this dam is breaking but there is little focus on it. There is no way that there will not be a harsh day of reckoning for the stock market which has raged forward to near record highs. It has gone up for no real reason and will fall at some point. It is basic economic cycles, like karma.

We could have changed this mass death count, but we, as a country did not. Let there be no mistake, it was a choice and we chose wrong. The leadership has lacked a central point that would lead by example and do what is best for the nation. This is the dark side of absolute personal freedom without the any caring for the common good. Science, that presence truly starting with Galileo Galilei to take hold, is now being doubted as a reality by a large amount of the populous. How odd that now, within the digital age, we are growing in a belief system from the Dark Ages. However, this mutation in cumulative thought, is only partially driven by religious thought. It is the sin of Pride that is taking this into a new spiritual thought. 

Also, let me say here that there is a low hum of a civil war rumbling ever so quietly within all this. The believers of the present president have a fanatical belief that has been called by many as a cult. He is their leader and will follow him at all costs. With him, and everyone involved, priming the pump with every word and action trying to make the election seem unfair, all the believers with fanatical zeal, it seems that there is no choice that some explosion will happen. It is possible that he could bribe and negotiate to have the electoral college to go against the popular vote. This would cause a wave of rightful protest and empower his followers. If all goes as the law states, he will be gone but both having destroyed as much as he could on the way out and never admitting he lost, enraging all those who believe. This will be a very divided nation for some time to come. I only hope there is no violence, though history seems to predict otherwise.

We were headed towards this dark place, like a snowball rolling down a hill. To be honest, we did not have an option to not have the snowball. But we did have the option of what hill to roll it down. Through pride, greed, and fear, we wound up here, still rolling down the hill, picking up both mass and velocity. And we do not know how big it is going to get and the full extent of the damage. 

It is a very depressing place to exist in a place where the sky is actually falling but no one believes in gravity.

Where It Is and ......

 In brief,... 

 

Around 11:30 AM today, it was announced that, after many days of counting votes, the present administration has been changed. Thankfully, there has been only a slight amount of violence. Right now, the people are dancing in the streets, literally. Yes, I cannot help but think of the ending chapter of "The Plague" where most of the city was out in the streets filled with delirious joy. It is, to say the least, beautiful to see so many people rejoicing.

We are now at 228,223 deaths from the virus and it is literally raging. It has encamped itself in every state of the country and shows no signs of letting go. Every scientist is saying that it is going to get very bad very soon. While the new treatments discovered during the first wave are helping, there were 128,000 new cases just yesterday. We are in for a long and dark winter.

As has been said for all of human history, it is not over until it actually is, and we are not over any of this. There are still almost three months of the present administration who has literally said many times recently that the virus is all but gone. The three months that remain will be critical in stemming the wave of pain and death that will be coming via all that is, at present, not being done. 

Finally, as Camus pointed out in his book, with this now massive change of one part of the narrative, life goes on. When I got the news of the election, I was working and could not stop. Outside, everyone seemed to be mowing their lawns. I just mowed my own lawn as well, as the weather is beautiful outside, warm with the glow of the Autumn sun. I will do laundry later and write a friend.

 This life, so much greater than all of our collective wants, needs, and desires, continues on, regardless.

I am just going outside, and it might be some time....drop by drop.

 When one reads history, one does not live through it...and right now, we are living through it, and it is hell.

As I type this, I just got word that people with the people who support the present administration have successfully blocked the Whitestone Bridge going into Brooklyn. Earlier this day, the stopped traffic on the Garden State Parkway and other places. Please note that this is happening when they believe they can have another four more years of this. All this week, the United States has been averaging about a thousand deaths a day from the virus, while the present administration is literally saying that it is almost gone. The only voice of reason out there is Dr. Fauci who has stated many times recently that, "we are in for a world of hurt in the days and weeks ahead."

In about thirty hours, it will be election day here in the United States and things are not looking good. Businesses in major cities have been told by their insurance companies to put plywood over their storefronts. This ominous visual is usually only seen before a hurricane, but now it is before an election. I cannot stress enough how this day was always and forever boring. There may have been some slight rumble of change in the air, but this, what we have now, is over the top and we have slid into what I have only seen happen in other countries far away. But now, it is us and we must live through it, drop by drop.

Here in new Jersey, things are not as bad as they were at their worst, but everyone has fatigue from the pandemic. The only remote cure for this is, alas, another major hit of the virus and many deaths. People forget and want what they want and it all goes to hell. This does not surprise me, as human nature never changes unless forced to for a short time. My life was literally ruined by the pandemic and I am doing the only thing I can: stay inside. 

The title of this blog post is from Lawrence Oates, an explorer who was on the tragic mission of Captain Scott to the South Pole. To make a long story short, when the crew finally made it to the pole, they saw that others had got there first. On the way back, they had many problems and Captain Lawrence Oates had gotten frostbite and gangrene. Food was scarce and, in order to not burden his fellow explorers so they could survive, he got dressed and went out into the arctic night during a blizzard. before he left, he went to Scott's tent and said, "I am just going outside, and it might be sometime..." He basically killed himself with the hope that them not carrying him  would allow the others a better chance of living.

Okay, fine, I am not going to stopwriting this buw...

I am not sure how or when i will continue this. What lays before me in the unknown soon-to-be is not good. I cannot even think of finding a Camus concept from "The Plague" to tie this together. In the end, however, it ties in perfectly with Camus and rebellion. That i where we are at now,  point of true rebellion. And, it sucks.

So, if anyone reads this and there are no more posts, I extend to you my deepest gratitude for taking the time to care enough to read this. I hope it was a clear testimony to what has happened. I, like Dr. Rieux, did my best to be honest and objective. Take what I have said as words as honest as they can get, for I served them and no one else. That was, and shall forever be,the gift of Camus.

The day of the election is closing in....

I am just going outside, and it might be some time....

May I speak to you sll before too long.