#newsamehope / 3.24.20
What is new in the last 24 hours?
Without consulting doctors, people are taking the anti-malaria drug chloroquine to self-medicate against COVID-19, and at least one man has died so far.
Two folks in detention at CCJ have tested positive. Please follow Chicago Community Bond Fund to find actions you can take to work for the release of hundreds of our neighbors.
Summer 2020 Olympics pushed to 2021.
IVF cycles and fertility treatments are being interrupted, and there are people who might completely miss their window to conceive after months of trying. Surgeries - even surgeries for people with brain tumors causing diminishing sight - are being postponed.
What is the same?
Dogs are phenomenal. Compelling guest stars on Zoom meetings. Delightful bursts of energy marching down the street. I think I have the same dog fever I had in third grade.
A lot of problems are the same. My friend’s car battery died twice while she was in the middle of a cross-town move on a rainy day. There’s a weird toggle switch emerging that clicks back and forth between Classic Problems and Virus Problems, and for too many people that click and clack sounds like a tap dancer.
What is the hope?
Ideas. Ideas for connection and adaptation. For transforming what we know into something we never knew to expect. Virtual talent shows and choral concerts and play readings. Playing within boundaries and allowing ourselves to be surprised. Allowing ourselves to fail miserably. Inviting ourselves to fail miserably! Laughing (or crying) at our miserable failure. Inviting others to laugh or cry (or both) with us at our collective miserable failure. Gathering the shiny bits out of the ashes of our collective miserable failure and then stitching them together.
Photo: Chicago River, March 2020.