Shipshape

 I've been stuck in the house with Covid for (checks watch) about seventeen years now, and I keep wondering if I am missing anything in the "real world." When I can scroll past all the updates on Ben and Jen or photos of Elon Musk's alien physique, I discover that there is a lot of awful still to be found in what is left of our world. 

There is still a war going on in Ukraine. People are dying. Every day. 

The globe is heating up. People are dying. Every day. 

I suppose the flipside of this is that civilians continue to get married. Every day. And alien physiques are on display all over. partly in response to climate change. 

For every Kylie Jenner ten-minute jet flight to go shopping at Target, there are thousands more of us using paper straws and using gray water to grow our own vegetables. While we stare in disbelief at what our elected officials are doing and saying, there are hundreds of viable candidates from which we can choose in the next election. Currently, I am sick and tired of being sick, but because of the work and sacrifices of medical professionals I am frustrated by my illness. I am not dying. 

I believe it is important to keep this even-handed perspective as we continue to make this trip together. Our accommodations may vary, but we are all in the same boat. I know that things look a lot different from down here in steerage, but something that becomes more apparent almost daily is the way that a ship without enough lifeboats sinks. The trick isn't really to get more lifeboats. The trick is to make sure that the ship doesn't sink in the first place. Once upon a time, the Titanic was named just that because it was believed to be superior to anything else on the sea. Now that name is synonymous with catastrophic failure. 

Someday, James Cameron will make a movie about The Earth. Hopefully it will end more like Avatar. 

And star Ben and Jen.