IN CASE YOU WERE WONDERING

As I continue to advocate for the reality that we shall need to to remain at home for at least another two or three months, a thought occurred to me.

Some of you may wonder (especially those who have known me for a long time) if I am doing this just because I like hanging out at home and want an excuse not to go back to work.

While I’m the first to admit that my default setting is introvert hermit and that I’ve strategically avoided conventional employment throughout my life, let me make one thing absolutely clear:

When this lockdown hit I was preparing to kick my life into high gear.

The Open Stage that Stann Champion and I had been doing for over 6 years was finally getting some recognition and hit the groove that he and I had been striving for since the beginning.

I was working full time in an office, at a fairly complicated sociological research job that I enjoyed a great deal. I was busting ass and crushing it every day, working much harder than I needed to in order to get my research/scholarly chops back, with an eye to entering Grad School, perhaps even Law School.

My harmonica playing was hitting yet another level, and I was going to spend 2020 getting out and showing the music scene what the last 3 years of hard woodshedding had done for me. And finally take the next step toward fronting my own band.

I’d finally found a Theater Company composed of talented musicians and singers who might have an interest (and more importantly the training and skills) to help me actualize a Gilbert & Sullivan-esque Musical that I’ve been kicking around for several years.

And most importantly, I’d finally gotten the PTSD-related depression/anxiety problems that had been hampering me for 20 years under control, and was remembering what it was like to actually feel good about life and myself.

SO DON’T THINK FOR A SECOND THAT I’M STAYING AT HOME BECAUSE I DON’T HAVE ANYTHING BETTER TO DO.

I just have accepted the reality that this extreme personal sacrifice is what I need to do— for myself, for the people I love, and (drum roll) for the good of society.

People used to gladly make sacrifices for the good of society all the time, but the practice has fallen out of favor in the last few decades.

And that’s pretty much the central reason we are in this mess.

So SUCK IT UP, Pilgrims.

Pretend you’re Sonny Rollins on the Williamsburg Bridge. A chrysalis waiting to emerge as a beautiful butterfly. A rocket waiting to be launched.

Eat right, keep active, learn and grow. Work toward becoming your best self.

Because when it’s safe for us to emerge, we’ll have a whole society to rebuild- in one way or another.