Corona Letters #54 - Sunday Musings

 Do You like my Hat?

Did you ever read the book "Go, Dog, Go!" to yourself, or to your child?   Do you remember that every few pages one dog asks another, "Do you like my hat?" and the other simply says, "I do not like that hat." Then one of the dogs would say, "Good bye" and the other would reply "Good bye".  End of conversation.

This conversation reminds me of the delicate conversations I have now with family members that do not share my political views.   We know better than to discuss certain topics so the conversations go something like this:

Me:  Hello, How are you?

Them: (worried about the election) Fine. How are you?

Me: (also worried about the election). Also fine.  How is the weather?

Them:  It is hot, but okay (not hot enough for me to not go out and vote).  And how is the weather by you?

Me: It is lovely.  Really nice (perfect weather for voting)

Them:   How are the kids? (will they be exercising their right to vote?)

Me: They are well!  They are great! (They will absolutely be voting)

Them:  That's good (worried about how kids will be voting)

Me: Yes it is (not at all worried).  And how is your health? (maybe you won't make it to the polls?)

Them:  Good enough (good enough to vote)

Me:  Goodbye.

Them:  Goodbye.

(both hang up, both proud they avoided politics)

****************

Paper Maps

My daughter and I were in the car recently on a route we had traveled at least a thousand times when there was a sudden, poorly-marked detour that took us into uncharted territory.  We hadn't been using a GPS because we knew where we were going.    However, once we were on unfamiliar terrain I asked my daughter to plug our destination into the GPS, and an alternate route was quickly mapped out for us.   As we drove she asked, "What did you do before GPS?  What if this had happened?  What would you have done?"

"Well, we had paper maps" I said.

"So, did you plan your trip out before you left?"  She asked, "Did you look it up on the internet?"

I chuckled.  "Well, there wasn't always an internet back in the day my young whippersnapper! (okay, I didn't say the whippersnapper part but it sounded about right here)"

"So what would you do?" she asked again.

"Well, we had paper maps, and we had town atlases that we kept in the car.  And, if you were going to a new friend's house, the friend would give you directions over the phone, like, "take a left at the dunkin donuts, then a right at the Mobil station, go two blocks and then take a left at the big red house with the maple tree in the front yard."

"That must have been hard."  She said.

"Not really." I said "We didn't know about the internet, or GPS,  Paper maps were all we knew.  We didn't miss anything.  We didn't know what to miss.  It was fine."

Both of us sit in silence contemplating a world without GPS.  How did we do it?!?!?!

*********

Trick or Treat?

There has been a lot of discussion about Halloween recently and whether or not it should happen.

There are many cons:

1. After months of being told it's not safe to go to other peoples houses, kids are encouraged to ring the doorbells of strangers?  Kind of confusing for them.

2. Is the candy safe to eat if previously handled by others?

3. Kids running around in neighborhoods, having fun, and possibly interacting/touching with each other.

There are also some pros:

1. Kids get a sense of normalcy in a very abnormal year

2. Chances of candy wrappers transmitting the virus are minimal

3. See #3 above

4. Um.  Candy.

But, at the end of the day I can't help but think that in this crazy, unprecedented year we are going to cancel the ONE holiday which has actually ALWAYS been about WEARING A MASK!

Happy Halloween Kids!

The Election

The Presidential election is upon us and most people are extremely worried no matter what their political leanings might be.   I don't want to get into it so I'll just end with this:

"Do you like my hat?"

"No.  I do not like that hat."

"Goodbye."

"Goodbye."