How interestingly and inconveniently the world always seems to catch up with us, or we with it. How certainty and expectation are rerouted following the laws of nature more often than that of human will. So is human will the culprit? We are victims of our own blindness as much as the beneficiaries of our vast ability to create. Hope I haven’t lost you already. When we get wake up calls, do we actually wake up? Do we put our feet to the floor and follow where we may be being led or do we swing them back up and hit the snooze alarm?
So the president finally has COVID-19. How should we react? Over 200,000 have died in the US, 25% of the world’s death rate and rapidly rising. Whether he’s a survivor or a casualty he’s still more than a number, he’s part of the larger tragedy we are all confronting in our various ways. This should not be a “gotcha” moment, only a reminder of how carelessness and arrogance always work against our better instincts and well-being.
Two months ago I was finally diagnosed with Lyme disease after having had symptoms for an indeterminate period of time (some months). Being an outdoor person in the warmer months and one who enjoys sun, water, warmth, etc. at some point I let my guard down or was oblivious to the possibility. Wishful thinking is no substitute for intelligent precautions. Not wearing a mask in public is just as much a known invitation for COVID-19. Trump liked to think he was disempowering the virus by not wearing a mask and calling it the “China Virus,” pretending it would go away. Now he will hopefully realize it’s the Trump Virus just as easily. We both have lessons to learn.
Cause and effect undeniably reduces the equation to a function of wisdom vs folly. Knowledge vs ignorance. Experiencing consequences should teach us the best routes to follow, but we like to twist truth to conform to our preconceptions of what might benefit us the most. The dangling jewels catch our eyes and more measured thoughts are left dangling to no effect. We make too many choices based on the moment and yes, Trump presented something different. Now we’re confronted with the reality: a president compounded and cuckolded by the bald facts that make him a fool. In olden times, a cuckold was the sucker of a husband who got fooled by his wife’s affair with another man. Shakespeare had great fun with that.
We’re the sucker of a population that got told the virus was nothing to worry about when we knew it was likely to be devastation en route. We’re torn between the schadenfreude we’ve projected at the president’s criminality and that of his henchmen and the fact now that as a human being he deserves the best that we can wish upon him. What many of us recognize as the epitome of corrupt practice now begs our compassion, not our opprobrium. The times we’re in continue to tear us apart against our will. We know that with all the crises that surround us, we are at the most vulnerable as a nation.
His supporters have to feel disappointed that he fell victim of his own misconceptions of omnipotence. He failed to protect himself just as he failed to protect the people he serves; placing himself first at the expense of the rest, he became no more than the rest. That’s the irony of it all. A most un-presidential thing to do, perhaps an original sin; acting carelessly, rejecting the protection of masks for the most basic protection from the virus, endangering the country’s well -being as well as his own. Arrogance in the extreme from the most distorted and convoluted ideas of who he is and the position he’s in. What could be a greater dishonor to his responsibility as a president to the country?
But I’m being harsh perhaps in a time when we need the most merciful and well-intentioned thought to both he and his family. We are being called on to exhibit the very best of our abilities to heal and not add to the coronavirus catastrophe. Nothing we might wish to see will manifest except through our faith in the greatest love we can show, and wishing well upon an uncertain foe is our best guarantee that were the tables turned we might ourselves be able to count on that compassion.
Alan Harris, of Shelburne, is a writer, singer, family man, philosopher and whatever’s needed most.