Good Friday Thoughts
Dear Editor: Sitting. Quiet. Alone. Thinking about our shared humanity during this troubled and traumatic, sacred and spiritual time. Now, add a shared virus, linking us – again – as a species, changing.
The eldest son of a first cousin on my father’s side is dying on a ventilator. He has taken hydrochloride, the malaria medicine. He is in pain. Today the doctors are taking him off that medicine. The outcome seems inevitable, but I haven’t heard. Yet.
This week is my third week trying to do some rational research on this COVID-9 Pandemic. This week I’ve burned a Marie Callender’s apple pie. Totally forgot about it, watching TV coverage on three stations, switching from MSNBC, to FOX, to CNN. Taking notes in my ancient shorthand. Two notebooks, fragmented. My sanity is frazzled. I must stop.
But I do want to share my puzzlement and my awe. There ARE patterns to disasters and we learn a lot from them: for example, weakness in systems and leadership, needs in innovative technology, “scientific” research, whatever that means now with our weird dependence on “models,” and the rare engagement of the social sciences other than the money ones. A burst of creative energy will occur. Validation of what really matters will sharpen our awareness of our shared humanity, and our amazing capacity for compassion.
It is indeed painful, but how truly fortunate we are to live in Sitka, hunkered down, COVID-free so far. Warm, supportive vibes sent outward to Sitkans, Alaskans, family and around the globe to all my shared hominid species. That is the vintage voice of an anthropologist of the Old School, mixed with classic – also vintage – Presbyterian upbringing. May all of the deities of the world rally around us all in the beautiful, validating ways that enhance the fine qualities of our shared species, newly connected.
One Vintage Voice,
Nancy Yaw Davis, Ph.D., Sitka
Hometown Paper
Dear Editor: I echo the sentiments of Peter and Michelle Kennedy in Tuesday’s Letter to the Editor. Jon and I would also request our subscription continue as we have great appreciation for what you are doing. To have a hometown paper anywhere is a minor miracle in this day and age. We do miss our sweet paper boy and hope he and his family are doing well.
Alice & Jon Wolcott, Sitka
