“In order to write about life first you must live it.”– Ernest Hemingway

Welcome back, it's good to catch back up with everyone on this Monday, June 15, 2020. I think I've come up with a way to describe the current state of health advisory in our nation. It's called consensus of confusion. The coronavirus is still spreading and expanding. We may have to advise some additional measures to try and deal with it. Crowds are still a major concern as seen in the spike of confirmed cases after Memorial Day. States that have been aggressive in reopening may have to scale back. The second wave could present different problems that have not been faced before. And, finally, the real kicker here. We are not that concerned about the spread of the virus within the protests going on. We consider those gatherings to be public health necessities. We would prefer some type of social distancing at these events but we understand the nature of the gatherings does not tend to provide this opportunity. Meanwhile, Churches may need to rethink their opening strategies. As one nearby county judge put it, things are beginning to be out of hand but not severely out of hand yet. With those kinds of insights and recommendations, I suppose we now have all we need to make informed decisions. At any moment, I look for a call to have any and all non-African American individuals who have the last name 'Black' to immediately change their names. That may sound way over the top but it is not even close to being that far fetched given some of the stuff we are already seeing. Meanwhile, we just have to trust God and do the best we can. Amen. 

I have a dental appointment for a checkup and cleaning this morning. It will be my first time back since all of this quarantine business started. I am not looking forward to my visit. It will be fine if they will do the checkup and cleaning and be done with it. But, that's not how they operate. They will detect some issue and they will want to schedule a follow-up to deal with it. Their detections typically start at a minimum of $1,000 and go up from there. I suppose it's because they have better x-ray and other examination means today. That's being nice. They have their overhead to cover and they are in a nice location. They have two long rows of divided dental stalls and they typically do their best to have someone being worked on in every stall. I've mentioned before how the experience itself these days resemble gong in for an auto repair. They always come out with their clipboard and tell you that while fixing the problem they discovered something new that needs to be repaired. Always. I would guess they will be taking my temperature this morning. It makes me wonder if I should figure out how to have myself a wee bit of fever when I get there. You do know I am kidding, but, the thought did cross my mind. 

I recently watched some very old TV sketches done by Sid Caesar and Imogene Coca. They did a 90-minute live version of slapstick comedy that was hilarious to me back in the early 1950s. I can remember seeing some of those shows when I was a kid. They would make me roll on the floor. Seeing them now does not have the same impact. They seem very moronic these days. What happened? Are they no longer funny even though they were thought to be the work of genius back then? Or, have we all changed so much we no longer can be made to laugh unless something fits our enlightened sense of humor? It most likely is more the latter than anything else. We, as individuals and collectively as a people, have lost our innocence and replaced it with an attention span so short we have trouble even processing what we are seeing,  without any hope of finding any humor in it. We have also recently watched some of the Jackie Gleason, Art Carney, and cast in the old Honeymooners program. Thankfully, some of those still make me laugh. Out loud, to use the modern catchphrase. Maybe there's still hope. Of course, many of the old programs are being put off-limits by the thought police who find them to be sexist and racially insensitive. I always thought we were to learn from history, not to purge it if we don't like it. I guess I better quit and go study for my dental exam. See you next time. Lord willing. Amen. ....More later.