Some time ago, I noticed an interesting phenomenon. When I was in management, mostly as President of an ad agency, I never wanted to make personal decisions about what to have for dinner, what plans to make for the weekend, or which colour to choose for the house paint.
One summer, I took some time off. I travelled to Ireland, went sailing, visited family and friends and found that decisions, like where to have lunch or what movie to see, became a snap. I found that quite curious.
I think that being in a position in which every moment of every day requires split-second decisions making layered over long-range planning puts a strain on personal decision-making capacity. Personal life becomes overload. Removal from that corporate responsibility frees up the ability and the interest in making basic life choices and decisions again.
Yesterday, 4 days of counting after the US Presidential election, the Biden-Harris ticket was declared the winner with more than 270 electoral college votes and a 4 million count advantage of the popular vote. With the win in Pennsylvania, the Keystone State where I grew up, Joe Biden became President-Elect, the oldest ever at 77, the same age as my brother. Kamala Harris became the first woman and the first woman of colour to become Vice President-Elect. As the daughter of immigrants from Jamaica and India and married to a Jewish man becoming a stepmom to his children, she broke all kinds of ceilings. Kamala is as all-American as it gets.
This will be an unusual Presidency, of course after all the court challenges Trump is mounting. We have a President-Elect who tried to run twice and third time was lucky. We have a majority in the house but not in the Senate, so there will be obstacles. Unless of course, the run-off in Georgia flips two seats -- or at least one to cause a tie between Republican and Democratic seats, because then Kamala will have the tiebreaker vote. Personally, I'd quite like the latter outcome.
Trump had meltdowns on Twitter as expected and Twitter vowed to treat him like any normal human being if he lost. Well, he has lost and they've been not just flagging his tweets, they've been suppressing them. Cool. Thank you, Twitter. But the second-best moment of the election was that Rudy Guiliani held a press conference at the Four Seasons Landscaping company instead of the Four Seasons Hotel in Philly. He stood in a parking lot between a sex toys shop and a crematorium. The internet has had a field day with that one. And while he was talking about the lawsuits being prepared, the Biden-Harris win was announced. He asked who announced it and the reporters responded, "They all did!" Sweet.
Jill Biden is expecting to continue teaching in college so she will become Professor FLOTUS. Of course, she already has experience as Second Lady of the US. Douglas Emhoff is the husband of U.S. Senator and vice president-elect Kamala Harris and a successful litigation attorney. He is set to become the first Second Gentleman of the United States. He will be the first Jewish person in US history to be married to a President or Vice President. He has said he will take a leave of absence from the legal firm of which he is a partner. He could have interesting conflicts.
Things are getting complicated in two-career families who hold elected office. Michelle Obama must have found it extremely difficult to give up her career for 8+ years.
We have a divided country, a soaring pandemic, historic unemployment, a delicately balanced economy, and systemic racism -- can these people heal a country in turmoil? It certainly finally feels like someone is going to try.
I am grateful for the lack of rioting and peaceful celebrations in the interim. I just feel so relieved that we aren't going to have to endure another 4 years of trumpism. He's fired!
May life be interesting.
Sadly, yesterday was also the day that the global confirmed cases of coronavirus infection topped 50 million while America soared to 9.9 million ahead of most third world countries. God help us all.
As 33M have recovered, that means 13M people are sick all around the world. The vaccine trials are on and off as serious side effects appear; same with antibody trials. Westport now has 54 cases of disease transmission (42 yesterday) so have to double down.
The remnants of Hurricane Epsilon came through here Thursday, we had a day of weather respite Friday and today we face Storm Aidan. Always something.
Earthquake off Greece causes destruction in Turkey and Greek islands. A mini tsunami floods towns, and a 30-metre wave is clocked off Ireland.
The elections are underway in the US; it ain't pretty. Trump is Trumpian and Biden stirs up hope.
Not to be depressive, but the world has documented 40M cases, a drop in the bucket compared to the total population figures. They are talking about level 5 lockdown, which would be awful for the winter. It's actually pretty stupid because being winter, if we are permitted to drive some distance, we could just go off and walk in the woods. See nature and recharge as we did this week in Wild Nephin, a rewilding project nearby where 11k hectares of land are being left as wilderness and national park. I hope it works and nature takes its course.
Otherwise, we'd be stuck indoors with people coughing in our faces. Alex and I got our flu shots and I had my teeth cleaned. Still need to get a GP visit in before the winter outbreak becomes too bad in these parts.
Still can't write and people are getting rabid. Facebook is exploding with rancour. I will wait until after the election. If Biden wins, I start writing. If Trump wins, I crawl into a hole and lock out the world.
The world has surpassed 35M confirmed cases of SARS-CoV-2 infection, Donald Trump is hospitalised with it at Walter Reed, Melania Trump has it in the White House, and lots of others have been tested positive, including Kellyanne Conway, Chris Christie, several Senators and Trump's campaign manager. The incidence of new infections is on the rise around the world, and we've reached the daily figures of early April here in Ireland. Lockdown is on the way. It's going to get a lot worse.
Interestingly, Trump is being treated with exactly the drugs I would choose: Regeneron's polyclonal antibodies and a 5-day course of remdesivir (Gilead).
Thank goodness that Biden and his wife tested negative as did Pence. At least maybe the election can proceed. We've cast our ballots and Alex has already received his confirmation.
At least Alex and I got our flu shots and Meike had her cataract operation. I should get a physical exam and dental cleaning before it gets worse. And it's going to get a lot worse.
More than 33M confirmed infections and more than 1M excess deaths marks a dark milestone on this pandemic journey. Moreover, people are starting to talk openly about what's being called 'long Covid' by the 'long-haulers'. The symptoms range from chronic conditions that suggest it precipitates metabolic syndrome -- diabetes, hypertension, arrhythmias, to neurologic complications including brain fog and strokes, to nonspecific symptoms like hoarseness, loss of voice, hair loss and exhaustion.
Heard a story on the radio here this morning about a young healthcare worker in his 30s who was very fit and healthy when he contracted Covid-19 and landed in ICU. They put him in a coma for a few days, and he woke up two months later, with chronic conditions including diabetes, hypertension, arrhythmias, and asthma. Had none before.
An article in the NY Times today indicates the worst problem is that no one, including the docs, are listening to the long-haulers, thinking instead that the ongoing symptoms are psychological. I've been hearing that quite a lot.
An excellent BBC podcast explores all the weird symptoms and what is known about the mechanisms by which the SARS-CoV2 virus operates. Basically, not very much. Yet I am convinced that this virus is going to teach us an awful lot about how chronic disease occurs. I've long thought that it's a combination of genetic susceptibility triggered by microbial infection. Diabetes, hypertension, arrhythmias, dementias, cancers -- I think one day we will know the causes and they will be minuscule.
Not unlike in the War of the Worlds, it will be the smallest inhabitants that bring us down. How's that for apocalyptic thinking?
More than 30M confirmed cases of coronavirus infection, and almost 1M dead worldwide, 200,000 dead surpassed in the US alone. But this is just a drop in the bucket when considering the total population of the world, 7.8B people. We have a long way to go.
Sir David Attenborough's new documentary, Extinction: the facts, is profound in its directness. Humans are at the root of extinction of the earth's biodiversity. And it's our sheer numbers at fault. I know that. I have known that since I was a young girl reading science fiction. In the year I was born, there were 2.7B people on this earth. There was space between them. Now with 7.8B and growing, it's closing in on us. The earth can no longer sustain us. It's a small wonder all the rich people are looking for a way off this planet. They know we won't change before it collapses.
