Subtle Light, Silver Bowl: Corona Virus Sars 2 COVID Koan Prelude:Consumer Se...

Subtle Light, Silver Bowl: Corona Virus Sars 2 COVID Koan Prelude:Consumer Se...: Corona Virus Sars 2 COVID Koan Prelude:   Consumer Service over Contagion Paradigm Global Body Warning 2/15/2020 I got the text “c...

Unemployment System Recovery?

 

9/29/20

Under the mantel of Covid-19 we all carry our own weight and that of others. I filed for unemployment benefits in the middle of February. That was after attending a telephone town hall with AOC and others when they described who was eligible and how to apply.

One morning that month, I dialed the number and answered all the questions on the telephone response system. It took some time. At the end there was the automated voice that said you have now completed your unemployment application which was followed by an immediate click. No explanation, no further instructions. That began the seven-month saga and trauma of being in a system that was completely broken under the weight of reality.

I lay on my bed it seems the sirens never stop. In my sleep I hear them. Across the street is a community health center that also contains a long-term care nursing facility. Sometimes there are as many as four or five ambulances coming and going. It is right across a one lane street so there is no escape. I was diagnosed with PTSD after 9-11. Now the Pandemic was all around me. The sirens were non-stop through virus laden air. I started studying this disease even before it was known by most. I want to know how things work not all things, but I have preferences. One of mine is public health and well-being. I had been following international news cycles from other countries especially China. There was the threat of illness washing through the reports of an unknown disease that is new to humans.

10/3

What I know is that our social systems of support are broken. This is not news. Through our years of prosperity, we have neglected basic systems that are created by civilized societies to protect its population. That is not news either.

In seven- and one-half months, I got through on the telephone line to the Department of Labor only four times. There were two times that they called me. There were no letters to tell me what I should do.  After that first call, I tried a number of times to get through, it was futile and I also realized that this kind of process was going to be detrimental to my health if I followed their instructions. But there was no other way. It had to be the phone line. I keep in mind that the telephone was the first technology used to harass people.

The first call I got from them went something like this. It was about 4 to 6 weeks after my initial filing for benefits.  At this juncture excuse me as I have to take a break to find some music to listen to. That has been a saving grace. I went looking for music and found D. Trump’s, four-minute video from the hospital. That was not what I wanted to hear. And neither was the first phone call I received from the Department of Labor. Phone calls are problematic with robo and spam calls which I usually do not answer. I got into the habit of just picking up any call to answer hoping for help. One morning when I answered there was a man who identified himself as calling from the DOL. Wow, I thought, and he asked me questions where had I worked, and things related to my case. He did not sound very official or professional, but I thought what the heck they are outsourcing to get more people to help. The call felt uncomfortable but what really was disturbing was that at the end of the call he said “well good luck” in a sarcastic way. Really? Am I playing the lottery here? Or am I applying for benefits that I am legally entitled to? I could hear a dog barking in the background. Yes, someone definitely working from home. But who was that person? A mirage, who did I just talk to? I am sure I asked him his name, but as the months rolled by my suspicions were confirmed. In the meantime, it felt like when I played tennis as a kid. Your opponent serves one to you and the ball grazes the top of the net then dips over the edge clinging to it as it slides to the ground. No matter how fast I was and skidding along the clay court raked skid marks with my sneakers as I dove, the ball was just there doing nothing, and I am covered in ochre clay dust. Everyone knows that feeling. The one that echoes in your head, it is the sound of what just happened here, and it is a bit of a heart drop.

In response: The taint in giving and doing good. Breaking the Class Ceiliing

These services can be helpful. They are meaningful to keep our communities coherent during this time when the President and cohorts refuse to lead.

But the large picture shows that rents in New York City are too high and have been for many years. Except for NYCHA and a smattering of other subsidized entities, people can't afford the rent. So while all the activity to help people is admirable it is not going to be enough. Ever. The city is not viable for the 15 dollar an hour 30 dollar an hour or 40 dollar an hour wage earners who can't get public, subsidized housing. What is left are market rents and every new building says "Luxury"on it. That is what passes for decency. If I can't afford to live in a luxury building, then I should live without an elevator, washer and dryer, dishwasher, and as I get older suffer the indignities of not being middle class anymore due to the lost wages from Covid.That is why there are some things I can't do.  One is volunteering. Volunteerism is now based on outmoded ideas of philanthropy which have proved inefficient. I believe strongly in paid positions. Volunteerism seems a quaint response to very deep problems. Please read Anand Giridaharadas' book "Winner Takes All". It is a primer on why giving as we know it is tainted to such an extent that it encrusts the very systems of giving with more veneers of decency when in fact it lets the status quo of givers secure. This anchors the super rich in their positions. Real estate is one of those bastions.

I believe that businesses should make profit or why do business? However, avarice is what undermines all the good deeds ( and there are many ) that organizations do for their communities. Hence, it is  bandaids on scratches until the whole body is just pasted together and hopefully survives.

While I applaud those who take their time and energy to perform good deeds encompassed in volunteering which does make one feel better, it is temporary and lets the really hard issues stand.

The bottom line is this. Our Federal Government has abdicated people. The idea to let Covid rise to the point of mass infection to create herd immunity is insane for contemporary society with science and society that has a working public health infrastructure. That's what happened in 1918 because we did not have medicines. That is when many of our institutions of giving rose up to help. Most of them rose up from a white middle and upper class with religious affiliations with real concern for the tragedy around them. It is time to break the class systems of racism, and poverty the class ceiling if you will and change how we do things from giving to nurturing to front loading our social structures to housing human beings instead of warehousing them.

I support the sentiments of our local agencies but they are in a rut with wheels spinning because they can't or don't really address the lack that people have at this time. At best it is piecemeal. People will grab on to what if anything is offered, but I urge our organizations to look deeper and start to at least verbally address reality. Many people can not pay rent, do not have jobs and an adequate safety net. It is hard to tackle real problems. We usually go for the easier ones. But when so many people's lives are hard, is it a service to ignore their reality to make nice instead of defeat what nice stands for?

The real estate market in New York City has the largest rental market in the United States. Because of a combination of their greed and abdication of Federally funded support thousands of people have left the city and along with them the tax dollars

The real estate lobby has deep pockets, they are feeling the hurt that they have inflicted on others. That won't change their ways. Only laws will. Who will push for them? We have thousands of empty luxury apartments yet people leave the city for more affordable housing elsewhere. The city is now hollowed out and should not return to the way it was in the negative ways I have mentioned but in more meaningful sustainable ways. Is luxury sustainable?

In response: The taint in  giving and  doing good. Breaking the Class Ceiling.

Global Body Warning: Follow the Genome Koan Movement, Money, Money, Money, Keys of CDC with underground blues in B flat pentatonic clinking on ice a la Fats Waller

3/1/20/20

Global Body Warning: Follow the Genome Koan Movement, Money, Money, Money, Keys of CDC with underground blues in B flat pentatonic clinking on ice a la Fats Waller

I think often of my colleagues still at work in the nursing home. In conversation with one who like me is not at work I said, “it literally is dodging virus bullets.” Unfortunately, my predictions again are realized as the COVID-19 virus spreads through a nursing home on the West Coast. It infects health care workers and others. Well, we get to wear face masks, paper gowns, plastic gloves and goggles. Not exactly impermeable to the little invisible critters bouncing around on coughs and hanging onto the surfaces of living and dying things and people. We all go away in the end. Wait a minute. That’s Johnny Cash sort of. “Everyone goes away in the end.” That last name Cash. Hmm. That is the word. Money, money, money. In the keys of CDC or as we clinicians know, it can be called clinical deadly care. That of course is not the way we see it most of the time. It is better known as The Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Ah, my heart dear ones from all over the world. You came here to work and start again in what may feel like a million miles away from your homes to find a way to be and to give.

And now we can share with people who did not care to know, that Public Health is inextricably intertwined with all economies in the world. How stupid we have been as humans to not build into our lives the very things we need to take care of ourselves and the earth. How foolish and deadly. 

I Wanna Be a Billionaire.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qwlK5b4KYfI&list=RDRyt2SuHYhW0&index=5

Well Bruno is not quite there yet. He’s worth about a quarter of that.

Beware the Snake. I like Shania Twain’s take on greed. She’s made more than Bruno, but she is a few years older, and writes a lot of songs. Ka Ching is the name of this one. She nails it. To put it mildly she did not have a suburban childhood. She is everything Taylor Swift is not. Except talented both are truly that.

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=shania+twain+ka+ching

Beethoven’s Virus

And finally, for today, here is a rag tag young orchestra from Vietnam playing of all things Beethoven’s Virus which is a take on Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No. 8 in C Minor Opus 13.  Look at their faces. Positively loving what they are doing. They don’t sound bad at all. I will take this any day over the hyper stuffy other youth orchestras. They rock and kick butt.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kvYxyCFCvSs

Sometimes we need interludes to heal. I hope you have those in these times. My cup of zazen is brewing.

Global Body Warning Interlude 2: Give me a Candy Koan. Assessing my germs

2/23/2020

Here we are with a very embodied Koan by the name of Covid-19. It is not in the book of Serenity, The Blue Cliff Record or the Book of equanimity, the Gateless Barrier etc. It is as big as the world and the suffering in it. The passions that exist are beyond comprehension. How can I even explain my compulsion to work with it?

Here we are stepping into the unknown and unknowable. I woke up with a head cold sinus combination. At any other time pre Covid-19 it wouldn’t matter much. For a long time taking off when feeling slightly unwell has been my practice. I guess two bouts with cancer taught me how to stay indoors to heal. There is nothing fancy or glamorous about that.  I would miss the class.  The right thing today as it is a long class and very engaging in many ways. Koans are very embodied and I really don’t know how to answer them.

What is it?

This virus is an improvisational work in progress, and it has moves. It is the entire opus. I wanted a Candy Koan and you gave me this vast emptiness here it is CATCH MY Breath! I dare you.