In these stressful times

My friends.  These are stressful times, especially in light of calls for social distance and mass closures of things.  But no matter how bad we think things are, they could be so much worse.

I am thankful, through no effort of mine, that I am here and not in some refugee camp somewhere, with death and despair pursuing me, virus and hunger haunting me, and nothing but hell in front of me.

I am thankful, through no effort of mine, that I live in a plentiful society that, despite stupid people hoarding toilet paper and canned tuna, has more than enough food to go around.

Think about those who live on minimum wage in our so-called First World (have you ever wondered what the "SECOND WORLD" is?  I do know the answer.  If you are wondering, lemme know :)  ).   With the closure of restaurants, bars, gyms, etc etc, many of them are faced with a very uncertain future.  Just now Marriott is announcing the furlough of tens of thousands, without pay.  What will people eat?  So I am thankful, too, that I do not yet have to worry about that.

But of course we have legitimate concerns and frustrations.  Such is the course of everyday life, made more pronounced by this virus shit.  In this globalized world, shit happens, and it happens fast.  That is the cost of modern society, I suppose.

My gym has shut down, so I can't go and get my workout high.   This is probably something many of you face as well.  One can go running, I suppose.  Or do 6,000 pushups at home.  I don't know.  Today I threw maybe 25 pounds of books and shit into my backpack, and went for a one hour walk.  Pretty good.  Painless, relatively, and free.  And I kept my social distance!  Ha!

Speaking of social distance, I guess it's hard in congested cities (though they seem to be all emptied out now, even in New York).  But people are quite good at it.  Yesterday at the supermarket, people kept gaps between themselves and others while waiting in line.

Washing your hand all the time is good advice, I think, considering how much we touch our face and such.  But I don't get this face mask thing.  The CDC tells people not to wear masks unless they are actually sick.  In fact, putting on and taking off masks is often iffy, since you end up touching everything.

Friends, follow the CDC's advice instead of some random shit you picked up from the internet, lest we all be drinking bleach and munching garlic.

Please forgive these random thoughts.  I guess I can only handle online class material for so long.  My mind just explodes from the stuff.

Hope you are all (all three of you who actually read this distribe) doing well, and that you are safe and healthy.  Let's hope this calms down soon, and we have some measure of normalcy back.  For now, hang in there.  And remember, things could be (and still can be) so much worse. 

And get ready for the zombies!