Whoever is reading now, I know that you're dealing with the uncertainty of these times as well, and perhaps have much larger concerns than I do at this time. As to the utmost matter of health balanced with liberty, we all have reason to be concerned, and many people have more reason to be concerned than others right now, so we're not only doing this for ourselves, but also as a sacrifice for those who have paved the way for us in the world where we live. I say some form of prayer every day for having health, enough food, safe shelter, the ability to move around and people to love, all of which take center stage even more now. The strange thing is I'm pretty sure they are for everyone these days.
Monday I taught classes in a classroom, perhaps for the last time ever. Today we are home. Tomorrow we begin online classes using video conferences. I still don't know if I will have a full schedule or not. I will learn in a few hours. When I said good bye to my final class on Monday, it still wasn't even clear if I'd see them again via the internet, or if they'd be combined with another class. My company has lots of pressure right now, and students on visas must be offered classes. We get week to week payments from students, instead of full semester tuition, and we won't be getting any new arrivals any time soon given the travel bans/the general state of everything everywhere.
Thus, I have been making various contingency plans in recent weeks, but especially in the past 48 hours, when we learned that all classes would be moving online after NYC closed their public schools. Technically we are suspended for two weeks and will make a new decision at the end of the month, but the news and the facts don't portend well for re-opening. I may be on unemployment soon. That is okay. I have people who love me, and projects that have been crying out for me to spend more time on. I would prefer to transition from my life in the city more slowly, with good bye gatherings and warmer weather, but the news is changing so fast that I'm thankful I'm on a month to month lease, have a car with a full tank of gas, and have a few places I could go safely without endangering anyone. I don't have to leave though. I could stick it out here, I could teach remotely from several safer locations in the state, or I might be unemployed while living here (for a monthish) or somewhere else. If NYC goes into a San Francisco style lock down, at least I can take walks to the park and the river, see the sun from my window and get food. I've got 3-4 weeks of supplies... when you eat beans, oatmeal and sardines on a daily basis in your normal life, a normal grocery store experience can look like panic buying.
And I'm aware of all the jokes, but you definitely stock up on toilet paper when you share an apartment with four guys who routinely try to duck responsibility for buying and will go days without anything on the roll before caving (presumably because we're all hoarding a roll each for emergencies... then again, I once had to explain to my 50 year old roommate that paper towels shouldn't be flushed).
As for the day to day, anyone who has lived in New York has at least some built up tolerance to strange situations. Then again, people panic shop for kale when there's gonna be a mild snow storm. When I really need some courage to go about the day, like taking the train to crowded international classrooms the past couple weeks, I reminded myself that ten years ago I was on the Ho Chi Minh Trail walking behind my Cambodian guide, hoping they were 100% correct about there not being any landmines on the way. Watch your step, as they say. In India, you had to wash your hands or use hand sanitizer pretty frequently, and keep an eye out for those little malarial mosquitoes. Every time you got in a rickshaw or in a car or on a bus or motorcycle, you knew that you would just have to trust the driver and the other drivers and hope you made it to your destination safely.
As a world, we need to be more aware of hygiene and healthy habits anyway, and this crisis is shining a light on how wasteful our society was to begin with, and how we really only need the bear necessities to survive. There are already larger economic repercussions that will reverberate for a very long time, but first things first.
Today is St. Patrick's Day. My grandfather, Michael J. Sullivan, was alive for World War I, the Spanish Flu, the Great Depression, fought in the Second World War, and then everything that came along for Americans to endure until 2005.
Papa Sullivan wasn't much of a drinker, and in 2020 I've been doing so much less, but I will still raise a glass of Guinness to his memory today, which involves kindness, generosity, toughness, hard work and the ability to have fun
Monday I taught classes in a classroom, perhaps for the last time ever. Today we are home. Tomorrow we begin online classes using video conferences. I still don't know if I will have a full schedule or not. I will learn in a few hours. When I said good bye to my final class on Monday, it still wasn't even clear if I'd see them again via the internet, or if they'd be combined with another class. My company has lots of pressure right now, and students on visas must be offered classes. We get week to week payments from students, instead of full semester tuition, and we won't be getting any new arrivals any time soon given the travel bans/the general state of everything everywhere.
Thus, I have been making various contingency plans in recent weeks, but especially in the past 48 hours, when we learned that all classes would be moving online after NYC closed their public schools. Technically we are suspended for two weeks and will make a new decision at the end of the month, but the news and the facts don't portend well for re-opening. I may be on unemployment soon. That is okay. I have people who love me, and projects that have been crying out for me to spend more time on. I would prefer to transition from my life in the city more slowly, with good bye gatherings and warmer weather, but the news is changing so fast that I'm thankful I'm on a month to month lease, have a car with a full tank of gas, and have a few places I could go safely without endangering anyone. I don't have to leave though. I could stick it out here, I could teach remotely from several safer locations in the state, or I might be unemployed while living here (for a monthish) or somewhere else. If NYC goes into a San Francisco style lock down, at least I can take walks to the park and the river, see the sun from my window and get food. I've got 3-4 weeks of supplies... when you eat beans, oatmeal and sardines on a daily basis in your normal life, a normal grocery store experience can look like panic buying.
And I'm aware of all the jokes, but you definitely stock up on toilet paper when you share an apartment with four guys who routinely try to duck responsibility for buying and will go days without anything on the roll before caving (presumably because we're all hoarding a roll each for emergencies... then again, I once had to explain to my 50 year old roommate that paper towels shouldn't be flushed).
As for the day to day, anyone who has lived in New York has at least some built up tolerance to strange situations. Then again, people panic shop for kale when there's gonna be a mild snow storm. When I really need some courage to go about the day, like taking the train to crowded international classrooms the past couple weeks, I reminded myself that ten years ago I was on the Ho Chi Minh Trail walking behind my Cambodian guide, hoping they were 100% correct about there not being any landmines on the way. Watch your step, as they say. In India, you had to wash your hands or use hand sanitizer pretty frequently, and keep an eye out for those little malarial mosquitoes. Every time you got in a rickshaw or in a car or on a bus or motorcycle, you knew that you would just have to trust the driver and the other drivers and hope you made it to your destination safely.
As a world, we need to be more aware of hygiene and healthy habits anyway, and this crisis is shining a light on how wasteful our society was to begin with, and how we really only need the bear necessities to survive. There are already larger economic repercussions that will reverberate for a very long time, but first things first.
Today is St. Patrick's Day. My grandfather, Michael J. Sullivan, was alive for World War I, the Spanish Flu, the Great Depression, fought in the Second World War, and then everything that came along for Americans to endure until 2005.
Papa Sullivan wasn't much of a drinker, and in 2020 I've been doing so much less, but I will still raise a glass of Guinness to his memory today, which involves kindness, generosity, toughness, hard work and the ability to have fun
No comments:
Post a Comment