Why "Normal" Should Never Return. Rethinking Priorities After The Pandemic.

April 19, 2020

#379

Gentle reader,

Four generations touching.

The peoples of this earth have gotten through worse plagues than we are experiencing right now with Covid-19.

A hundred years ago, after the end of the extremely deadly first World War, "The war to end all wars" what came to be called the Spanish Flu occurred, which according to Wikipedia:

 "Lasting from January 1918 to December 1920, it infected 500 million people – about a third of the world's population at the time. The death toll is estimated to have been anywhere from 17 million to 50 million, and possibly as high as 100 million, making it one of the deadliest pandemics in human history." Emphasis added.

It spread without the aid of Air travel. Imagine how much worse it would be today. How are MILLIONS of bodies dealt with? Yet, the world recovered. Then the Great Depression happened.

The world one hundred years ago was vastly different than now. No telephones, a large percentage of the world still had no electricity, indoor plumbing (or toilet paper) and other things we cannot imagine living without today. 

It is my considered opinion that we cannot and should not seek to return to "normal".

Thanks to mass access to the Internet and proliferation of "devices" much of humanity has lost touch with reality.

Think back to before this happened. If you paused to look around you, what did you see, everywhere? People looking down at their phones.  No matter the venue, people were engrossed with their phones.

Music performances for which people pay dearly to see, countless audience members are recording it with their phones. Much to the dismay of the performers. And the enjoyment of those who want to SEE as well as hear. But they cannot for the hundreds of phones and tablets selfish people are holding up.

How many have been hurt or killed because drivers were using their phone in someway rather than paying attention to driving. 

 

Many of you will argue that smart phones are tools and they are needed in their lives. I can see that, they are marvelous inventions. 

 

I have many tools. They are all in tool boxes, on shelves or arranged on pegboard. When I am not using them, I know where they are. But the only tool I carry around is a Swiss Army knife.

Let me ask you this, how did you get along before cell phones were invented? We got on just fine. As did everyone else. 

 

We used maps we kept in the car to find our way. We opened the phone book to find someplace to eat, shop or make an appointment. We went to the library (when is the last time you even thought of the library?) to look something up. Computers were something scientists and the government used. If someone had said, "Have you been on the Internet?" to us we would have asked them what that was.

During dinner we all talked about our day. We played board games together. On the weekend we worked or played in the yard. We took walks, rode out bikes, played ball, catch or tag. Not one of those activities involved a "screen". 

I was born in the 1950's, my wife in the 1960's we married in the 1990's. It was many years before I suggested she get a (flip) cellphone in case her car broke down. When she upgraded to a better (flip) phone a couple years later, she got me one too.

This is the type of phone I use now. It goes on the Internet, but I never use it for that. It has many apps, which I never use. I make and receive calls and texts with it. It doesn't even have a camera. Which is fine by me. But that's me. 

 

I am NOT saying we should get rid of our phones. That will never happen. Please keep reading.

Of your many Facebook friends, how many do you actually know? My wife and I joined when the kids did because we wanted to see what they were up to. They posted EVERY activity back then.

I just looked, I have 69 friends on Facebook, 48 of them are people I have actually met and AM really friends with. That is a very high percentage. What is yours?

I am retired, so this forced (and necessary) isolation has not affected me very much, I was home anyway. I do crave going out with my wife, but we do so only to grocery shop. She is (as I was) and "essential" worker so we are not suffering financially like so many millions of Americans who have lost their jobs due to stay-at-home orders. 

 

For many years, one of our favorite things to do was go thrift shopping, either at stores or yard sales or flea markets and antique stores. We were literally filling our house with other peoples junk. The vast majority of things we have sitting on shelves and other places, we will never use, or even think about.

 

My family was poor when we were young. Five kids, and working mothers were mostly unheard of. Dad was a preacher so money did not go far. We had one car. One black and white TV. The telephone company owned the phones, so we had one if we had any at all. I already mentioned things we did. All of us wore hand-me-down clothes. Poor yes, sad? Not at all. We knew no differently. We had toys and friends and we loved playing together. Our parents still managed to make Christmas day wonderful.

 

We, and hopefully you too, have been using this time to reexamine out lives. So MUCH of what we have is pure excess and not NEEDED.  

With the convenience of Amazon and all the other websites it is too easy to buy things. A question we ALL should ask before buying something is this: DO I NEED THIS?

Since I am in my sixties, and all the kids are in their thirties, eventually, someone is going to have to deal with all of our STUFF.

 

Since this column has always been about our collections, I will tell you changes I began long before this happened. 

I used to collect film cameras of all sizes and types. Above only shows a (large) fraction of the 504 total that I had bought over many years.

One day, it occurred to me, "OK, you have proven that you can create a nice camera collection. Now what?" I had no one to share it with, nor anyone in the family who would want them. So, I decided to sell them off. 

The collection was down to these, plus some large ones not seen.

Then it was down to this.

This is the present collection. Every camera, except the one on the upper shelf, second from the left, was GIVEN to me by friends or family members. There are two large ones which were also gifts. I will never sell anything that was a gift.

I have always loved books, right now, just in this room there are two large shelves with hundreds of books. And many more on shelves around the house. The number is way down from the thousands we once had. Many were donated, some were sold. More will go. If I have read them once, why read them again with so many waiting for me to read them?

I have collected over 2,000 LP records. Music, unlike books, is something that one wants to listen to again from time to time. Above is a photo of the Classical records. I have multiple different performances of favorites. One could argue, "Just pick the best and get rid of the rest." I'm thinking about it. Sigh.

These are the Jazz and Big Band records.

Housed in this cabinet I made in my teens from white walnut wood is the classic Rock and Pop on the top shelves and movie/TV scores/soundtracks on the bottom.

We also have more than 1000 CDs and even 100 cassette tapes. in our music collection. 

Yes, one could download most onto a hard drive and listen to them with their phone. Not this guy. So, kids, you may have to deal with all these records.

Collections we have had and gotten rid of: Glass paperweights, Beanie Babies, countless (hundreds) stereo components and speakers, GI Joe type military figures, old glass bottles, old toys, wristwatches, and much more I can't remember.

But there is still so much more that can go. The hundreds of diecast cars, for instance. Am I recommending turning our home into a monk's cell? No. But our home and no doubt yours is filled with stuff.

Fortunately, we do not have a garage, I would love to have one, but SO many people have filled theirs with things they have no room for elsewhere. We have never had to rent a storage space either. 

My POINT is this: Use this time to REALLY think about what your life has become. LOOK, really look, around your home, make lists of things that are really important to you. Tag things that you forgot you even had, things your kids might like and things that you will never use again. Look in every closet, under beds, on shelves, the garage, your storage space, everywhere. Especially your CLOTHES. Think of all the homeless out there who could gratefully wear so much of what may not even fit anymore! What of ALL that STUFF do you really need? And what is just taking up space? Do you really NEED a TV in every room? Come on?

Then begin boxing things up. Put on a mask and visit places that sell boxes (Lowes, Home Depot, truck rental places) and get lots of them. Fill them up. Set the boxes, furniture and thins in one location and then look around with newly opened eyes at how much more ROOM you now have.

Also think about just how many HOURS a day you spend online. I am just as guilty of that as you may be. But I use my PC. Which means when I'm not on it, I am doing lots of other things. Plus, a lot of time I am writing. I admit that I too spend too much time on Facebook. 

If you really think about what you see on your Facebook page, how little are personal things someone you know put there? Or how much are silly or political or posts others insist or dare you to share? Is most of what you see ENRICHING your life? Or simply entertainment quickly forgotten? 

 

Seriously, this time we are forced to be home can be put to better use. Are you up to the challenge?

Now that I have put my thoughts and concerns to you, I am going outside, for once it's not raining, and do something about the yard. I'm taking the dogs out too. They need some fresh air and exercise. What are you going to do?

Scott

April 19, 2020

#379