Sorry, Tate, that you find yourself in such difficult times, but this health scare in which, to use Donald Trump's accurate but disheartening terminology, we are in a war against an invisible enemy, is crippling the economy of much of the world, and is disabling business proprietors and employees alike. It is an unprecedented moment in most of our lives, though the very old may recall the polio and smallpox epidemics and how they once threatened their very existences. The proposed stimuli bills in Congress will help, be we all know they won't be enough for many to absorb the pronounced and sustained hit to their livelihoods.
I'm one of the lucky ones in a financial sense, as I've been retired since 2008 and have a lot of money, enough that what's going on has made little to no difference in my spending power. Contrastingly, in a safety sense, I'm one of the unlucky ones, because I'm a 60-something diabetic who has had heart disease and heart surgery. That means I have several of the extra-risk factors for Corona as defined by the World Health Organization.
Hence, for me, Corona might be a death sentence if I get it, so I'm scared sh****ss. Another challenge is that I live alone, and may have to do without any social contact with friends and family for a long time. On top of that, I live in a very populous part of Manhattan, New York, and the streets around me are still very crowded. It's not the best time to live in a population center, even though I only spend about an hour outside a day, most of it for my daily walk. To sum, it's not lost on me that I may die soon as the deck seems stacked against me.
All that said, I count my blessings. I can still get the food and medicine that I require. So far, I haven't contracted Corona, my family and friends have been very supportive of me by phone and by email, and I feel confident that I will be able to endure what could be months of unparalleled boredom at home as long as I can avoid getting Corona. I know I will find a way to pass the time.
There are about a dozen people in my life, not one of them family, to whom I promised long, long ago that if they ever need it, I'll assist them financially, not by lending to them, but by giving them money. A couple have already called upon me, and my best guess is that some others will soon need to take me up on it, and it is my pleasure. I think each of us that is in a position to be financially supportive of those closest to us should reach out to them.
I've never thought of myself as courageous, but the challenge of the moment is to become courageous, because danger is all around. I'll need to be very careful, too, and I trying my darndest to be just that.
As a business proprietor, Tate, you'll surely regret making the difficult decisions that will have negative consequences for your employees, but what business doesn't slim down when the business, for whatever reason, becomes less economically viable? That's how business works, but it always hurts to layoff staff members that are high performers, and times like these inevitably entail doing just that.
We all live with some very crude realities right now. We are scared, isolated, and we are less able to be supportive of all those who depend upon us. We cannot visit elderly relatives living in homes, and that's disconcerting, too. Last, and definitely least, all but those of us with a pool table at home will have to do without pool for the imaginable future, and that's not going to be easy.
Let's hope all the members of our AZB family get through these trying times. We are no longer Republicans and Democrats, no longer Liberals and Conservatives --- we are citizens of the world, and our fates are tied tightly together.
