Yogi Berra said, "You can observe a lot just by watching." Here are some of of my recent observations.
Construction seems to be moving along just fine. I see road work, commercial building, and home construction everywhere.
From political ads, I now know that all politicians are alternately saints and Satan.
The COVID-19 statistics are almost worthless, because we don't really know what they mean. If our positivity rate is 5%, that's good unless we are testing a lot of people who don't need a test. Or it's a bad thing if we want to have herd immunity. But then herd immunity includes people who are not COVID positive, but have antibodies. What are we really measuring, now?
In some public places no one notices if you are wearing a mask or not. In other places, you get dagger gazes with a bare face.
Some industries are killing it in the pandemic, like Amazon and Netflix.
Other industries are struggling, like theaters and gyms.
Some people are making adjustments and finding a new normal.
Others are figuratively holding their breath until everything gets back to the old normal. Which it never will.
The current normal will not be the final new normal. But we don't know what the new normal will be or when we will get there. Or if we will even know it when we get there.
Life used to be more predictable than it is now.
The pandemic stress has shown where a lot of weaknesses are, in families, businesses, industries, churches, systems.
Sports seem less important than ever. Unless your kid plays. Then sports are very important and you miss them.
I'm going to keep observing. And I also want to jump in and get involved. Sometimes you can really make a difference just by doing something.
