Music that seems most appropriate:
Under the Sun – Variation 2
composed by Karlis Auzans
from the film Under the Sun, directed by Vitaly Mansky
posted with permission of (and thanks to) Karlis Auzans
— posted by Roger W. Smith
April 2020
And make certain not to practice your righteousness before men, in order to be watched by them. …
Matthew 6:1
The New Testament: A Translation, by David Bentley Hart
In an email to readers yesterday, New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof wrote:
Hospitals have been very reluctant to allow journalists in to report, in part because of genuine concerns about infection risk and HIPAA privacy rules. But this pandemic is a story that is best covered not from White House press briefings but from the front lines in the hospitals. I asked many hospitals for permission, and two did agree to let me and a video journalist inside. My column today … shares what we found. [italics added]
The visit left me deeply impressed by the doctors, nurses, technicians, respiratory therapists and cleaners who risk their lives by working each day in the “hot zone” where contagion spreads. Many confided their fears of getting sick and dying, or their worries about getting loved ones sick, and some spoke of their nightmares and panic attacks. Yet they soldier on with tremendous compassion. …
I recommend Nicholas Kristof’s op-ed:
Life and Death in the ‘Hot Zone’
“If people saw this, they would stay home.” What the war against the coronavirus looks like inside two Bronx hospitals.
By Nicholas Kristof
The New York Times
April 11, 2020
It’s an incredibly courageous — and in itself incredible — and also harrowing piece of reporting.
The true heroes of this crisis, this pandemic, are indeed the doctors, nurses, and other hospital workers; and the EMS workers, medics, and ambulance drivers.
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If I may add one further observation that I have been making in the past two weeks. As usual, it seems that, while some of the rich are fleeing New York City, it is ordinary people often who are the salt of the earth — the humble people who can’t leave. I have observed this several times.
About a week ago, I was on a bus in Queens that was more crowded than one would expect. Everyone seems uptight now about sitting or getting too close, and yet a woman was struggling to get on with an overloaded shopping cart — she must have been Jewish and shopping for Passover, judging by some of the items in her cart. The woman was from Manhattan, and getting back to Manhattan from Queens involved taking three or four buses. It was apparent that she wasn’t going to take the subway. The passengers on the bus, as I am finding with the transit riding public in the past couple of weeks, appeared to be mostly minority and not well heeled. When he observed the woman struggling, a black guy on the street who was not boarding the bus interrupted his walk to wherever he was headed to help her get the cart on. Then, a woman on the bus who appeared to be Hispanic spent ten minutes or so going over possible bus routes with the woman and inquiring from other passengers, all of whom pitched in with advice, the best route for the woman to take.
The bus emptied out, and the woman reached a point near the bridge where she had to get off and transfer for another bus to Manhattan. Passengers, myself included, made it a point to help her get her cart off, find the right place to catch the next bus, and help her get across Queens Boulevard with her cart to the right place.
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This past week, I was on a bus headed uptown on Second Avenue. A woman was getting off in Midtown. She looked like she could afford to live there. She had a couple of shopping bags. There was another woman wearing a mask seated across from me near the exit door. The bus goes all the way to East Harlem; this woman, from her dress, did not look rich. I felt she could have been a day care worker or some such type of work.
“Lady,” she said to the woman getting off, “you left your pocket book on the seat.” The woman was very thankful. The bus driver held up the bus so she could go back and get it.
I got off the bus a couple of stops later. “God bless you,” I said to the “day care worker.” “You did a good deed. You saved the woman’s day.” I was thinking how I would feel if I got home and realized my wallet, money, and credit cards were all gone.
— Roger W. Smith
April 12, 2020
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Maurerische Trauermusik (Masonic Funeral Music), K. 477 (1785)
— posted by Roger W. Smith
April 2020
Samuel Barber, Adagio for Strings (1936)
— posted by Roger W. Smith
April 2020
Domine Deus
from Stabat Mater, RV 589, by Antonio Vivaldi
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Domine Deus, Rex coelestis,
Deus Pater omnipotens.
— posted by Roger W. Smith
April 2020
I have been looking for consoling music to listen to during this time of crisis.
Most music is too intense for me right now.
I find — and always have — the composer Alan Hovhaness’s “Ave Maria,” Opus 100, no. 1a, for women’s chorus and instrumental accompaniment, which was composed in 1955, to be a beautiful piece that is just right right now. “Ave Maria” is part of a three-part work of the composer entitled Triptych.
My father, Alan W. Smith, had a nodding acquaintance with Hovhaness when both were in their adolescence. He and Hovhaness grew up in the same town (Arlington, Massachusetts) and had the same piano teacher.
— Roger W. Smith
April 2020
See my updated post
spring (as seen by The Bard, by Tolstoy; and felt by us all, myself included)
spring (as seen by The Bard, by Tolstoy; and felt by us all, myself included)
It seems relevant now.
— Roger W. Smith
I recently wrote as an addendum to my post
does cold air kill germs? (thoughts of a fresh air fiend)
the following:
I live in New York City. Here, and elsewhere — in the midst of the Coronavirus epidemic — people are being urged or ordered to STAY INDOORS.
As a blanket recommendation, this seems to me unwise, medically speaking. Common sense and experience tell us that fresh air and sunlight are inimical to germs and to the spread of disease.
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I would like to make a few remarks along these lines.
Last night, I saw a video clip on MSNBC of the governor of some state telling citizens to stay indoors during the Coronavirus epidemic.
She said that people should stay inside and only go out if they had to — for food shopping or to a gas station, say; or a medical appointment.
By coincidence, my wife had an appointment yesterday with a local doctor, Urszula Pustelak, MD, an internal medicine specialist, whom we both like and respect.
Dr. Pustelak practices holistic medicine. She follows her own advice in her daily life. She told my wife that she has been trying to walk as much as she can during the Coronavirus epidemic. She said she thinks that it is ridiculous for people to be confined indoors. She said that people need fresh air and sunshine to stay healthy and that germ or disease transmission is not likely in the open air. (I was not there and am reporting the conversation second hand. I believe my wife said that the doctor made it clear that what she meant was: in the open air, assuming that one keeps a distance from others while walking.)
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I have been walking quite a bit during the past couple of weeks — during the period when the Coronavirus epidemic became an emergency — and have been in some respects leading a more healthy life.
On Thursday last week, April 2, I walked for around five hours, probably twelve miles, or more.
Yesterday, Monday, April 6, I woke up not feeling well. I had felt the same on Sunday. It felt like I had the flu. I had a slight cough, was sweating and felt slightly feverish, felt achy, and so on. I Googled Coronavirus symptoms and I didn’t seem to have them (e.g., shortness of breath). Still, I couldn’t help worrying, am I infected? After all, I have been going out fairly often; and I took the subway a couple of times last week.
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It was a beautiful spring day. I decided I had to get out for some fresh air. And SUNSHINE. But people have been warning me to be careful: Don’t take the bus or subway. And, I take a bus to Brooklyn, to a point from which it is easy for me to walk to Manhattan.
Why not walk closer to home? Because I wanted to go to one of my favorite places in the City, Battery Park, and to be able to walk along the river, inhaling the fresh air and breezes; and enjoying the sunshine.
I walked for around four and a half hours, twelve or more miles.
When I got home, I drank a lot of water, took a nap which was extremely refreshing, and woke up feeling wonderful. All of my symptoms from the morning had disappeared. No aches; no feeling hot or sweaty. I felt a sensation of wellbeing, of my blood tingling. I felt vigorous and energetic, whereas for the past two days I had felt the opposite.
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On my Manhattan walks, I am finding that the City is almost deserted; there are very few people in Midtown or Downtown. I try not to get close to anyone, but of course, one does pass a pedestrian now and then on the sidewalk or on a walkway or path. I try to keep a distance. I do not (unlike most people) wear a mask.
In other words, I am trying to be somewhat careful. But, it has occurred to me, what is the risk that I am going to spread the disease (or catch it) in the open air without being part of a group? — I feel that it is very low.
I don’t go into take out places, say, to get a snack. I don’t eat during my walk. I will stop in a deli to get a bottled water or soft drink.
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I am not an epidemiologist or an expert on medicine or health. However, I feel that it is common sense that staying indoors all the time is not healthy under any circumstances — including the present public health crisis.
And that fresh air and sunshine (as well as exercise) are a good prescription for keeping disease at bay — any disease — as well as for physical and mental health.
— Roger W. Smith
April 7, 2020
the Brooklyn Bridge yesterday
And at his descent from the mountain large crowds followed him. And look: A leper approached and bowed down to him, saying, “Lord, if you wish, you are able to cleanse me.” And stretching out a hand he touched him, saying, “I wish it; be cleansed.” And immediately his leprosy was cleansed away. And Jesus says to him, “See to it that you tell no one, but go and show yourself to the priest and offer the gift that Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.”
And on his entry into Capernaum a centurion approached him, imploring him And saying, “Lord, my servant has been laid low in my house, a paralytic, suffering terribly.” He says to him, “I shall come and heal him.” But in reply the centurion said, “Lord, I am not worthy that you should come in under my roof; but only declare it by a word and my servant will be healed. For I am also a man under authority, having soldiers under me, and to this one I say, ‘Go,’ and he goes, and to another, ‘Come,’ and he comes, and to my slave, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.” And, hearing this, Jesus marveled and said to those following him, ”Amen, I tell you, I have found no one in Israel with such faith. Moreover, I tell you that many will come from East and West and will recline at table alongside Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the Kingdom of the heavens; But the sons of the Kingdom will be thrown out into the darkness outside; there will be weeping and grinding of teeth there.” And Jesus said to the centurion, “Go; as you have had faith, so let it come to pass for you.” And in that hour the servant was healed.
And coming into Peter’s house Jesus saw Peter’s mother-in-law laid out and in a fever; And he touched her hand and the fever left her; and she arose and waited on him.
And when evening arrived they brought to him many who were possessed by demons; and he exorcized the spirits by word, and healed all those who were suffering; Thus was fulfilled what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah when he said, “He took away our infirmities and bore away our maladies.”
But, seeing a crowd surrounding him, Jesus gave orders to depart, across to the far shore. And one scribe approached and said to him, “Teacher, I will follow you wherever you may go.” And Jesus says to him, “The foxes have lairs and the birds of the sky have nests, but the Son of Man has no place where he may rest his head.”
Matthew 8:1-20
The New Testament: A Translation, by David Bentley Hart
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“The Doctor Came to Save Lives. The Co-op Board Told Him to Get Lost.”
By Jim Dwyer
The New York Times
April 3, 2020
Word document above.
READERS’ COMMENTS:
I live in upstate NY and my neighbors are shunning me because I allowed a couple from NYC to move into my vacant house. When a friend told me a little more than weeks ago that his daughter and her family in Brooklyn were looking for a place to go because her husband is immune-compromised, I offered my house. I had moved in with my elderly parents to help them out a month ago, so the house was available. I was happy to help. My neighbors, not so much. They have let me know they are furious with me that I have allowed this small family to “infect” the neighborhood and have told me I cannot allow my house to be used by “outsiders” without permission from the county health department. There is no such requirement. Nonetheless, I have been contacted by the health department and the police. In the meantime, the couple has been practicing social distancing just like everyone else and for 2 weeks they haven’t had contact with anyone. They haven’t even left the house except to take their small children for walks. As for my neighbors, it’s true that hard times highlight the flaws in people’s characters. They are not the people I thought they were.
COMMENT by LibertyN
That crises bring out the best in humans is largely a myth. History has shown us, time and again, that it is only the very few who step forward for the collective good. The mass of us typically withdraw into ourselves when perceiving a life or death situation, scrambling to save our own lives, not infrequently at the peril of those close to us. That is what most of us do when confronted with the threat of catastrophic destruction. Heroic acts get the lion’s share of public attention, giving us the false impression that there are many who behave so generously. But they are, in fact, so few as to represent very much less than 1% of us. We rarely see ourselves as we are, but as we would like ourselves to be. We are most content when we applaud the very few who do the dirty and dangerous work for us, as if our cheering somehow compensates for our own cowardice. Those who daily put their lives on the line for the rest of us don’t need our applause. They need our intervention and collaboration. Sadly, as the crisis worsens — for it surely will — The fewer of us who will be inclined to venture out of our cocoons, but will in fact burrow even deeper.
COMMENT by citizennotconsumer
This story manages to tell a lot more about the present situation and what’s actually happening than all the analysis and detail being provided about the coronavirus epidemic by the press. A crisis such as a pandemic brings out magnanimity and heroism. Along with callousness in individuals who only care about their own safety — and not a whit about others.
COMMENT by Roger W. Smith
— posted by Roger W. Smith
April 3, 2020
from The Diary of Samuel Pepys, Volume Two (Everyman’s Library):
May 24th, 1665. Up, and by 4 o’clock in the morning, and with W. Hewer, there till 12 without intermission putting some papers in order. Thence to the Coffee-house with Creed, where I have not been a great while, where all the newes is of the Dutch being gone out, and of the plague growing upon us in this towne; and of remedies against it: some saying one thing, some another.
June 10th, 1665. Lay long in bed, and then up and at the office all the morning. At noon dined at home, and then to the office busy all the afternoon. In the evening home to supper; and there, to my great trouble, hear that the plague is come into the City (though it hath these three or four weeks since its beginning been wholly out of the City); but where should it begin but in my good friend and neighbour’s, Dr. Burnett, in Fanchurch Street: which in both points troubles me mightily. To the office to finish my letters and then home to bed, being troubled at the sicknesse, and my head filled also with other business enough, and particularly how to put my things and estate in order, in case it should please God to call me away, which God dispose of to his glory!
June 29th, 1665. Up and by water to White Hall, where the Court full of waggons and people ready to go out of towne. … This end of the towne every day grows very bad of the plague. The Mortality Bill is come to 267; which is about ninety more than the last: and of these but four in the City, which is a great blessing to us.
July 1st, 1665. Called up betimes, though weary and sleepy, by appointment by Mr. Povy and Colonell Norwood to discourse about some payments of Tangier. They gone, I to the office and there sat all the morning. At noon dined at home, and then to the Duke of Albemarle’s, by appointment, to give him an account of some disorder in the Yarde at Portsmouth, by workmen’s going away of their owne accord, for lacke of money, to get work of hay-making, or any thing else to earne themselves bread.
Thence to Westminster, where I hear the sicknesse encreases greatly. … Thence by coach and late at the office, and so to bed. Sad at the newes that seven or eight houses in Bazing Hall street, are shut up of the plague.
August 22nd. 1665. I went away and walked to Greenwich, in my way seeing a coffin with a dead body therein, dead of the plague, lying in an open close belonging to Coome farme, which was carried out last night, and the parish have not appointed any body to bury it; but only set a watch there day and night, that nobody should go thither or come thence, which is a most cruel thing: this disease making us more cruel to one another than if we are doggs.
August 28th, 1665. Up, and being ready I out to Mr. Colvill, the goldsmith’s, having not for some days been in the streets; but now how few people I see, and those looking like people that had taken leave of the world. I there, and made even all accounts in the world between him and I, in a very good condition, and I would have done the like with Sir Robert Viner, but he is out of towne, the sicknesse being every where thereabouts. I to the Exchange, and I think there was not fifty people upon it, and but few more like to be as they told me, Sir G. Smith and others. Thus I think to take adieu to-day of the London streets. …
August 30th, 1665. Up betimes and to my business of settling my house and papers, and then abroad and met with Hadley, our clerke, who, upon my asking how the plague goes, he told me it encreases much, and much in our parish; for, says he, there died nine this week, though I have returned but six: which is a very ill practice, and makes me think it is so in other places; and therefore the plague much greater than people take it to be. Thence, as I intended, to Sir R. Viner’s, and there found not Mr. Lewes ready for me, so I went forth and walked towards Moorefields to see (God forbid my presumption!) whether I could see any dead corps going to the grave; but, as God would have it, did not. But, Lord! how every body’s looks, and discourse in the street is of death, and nothing else, and few people going up and down, that the towne is like a place distressed and forsaken.
August 31st, 1665. Up and, after putting several things in order to my removal, to Woolwich; the plague having a great encrease this week, beyond all expectation of almost 2,000, making the general Bill 7,000, odd 100; and the plague above 6,000. … Thus this month ends with great sadness upon the publick, through the greatness of the plague every where through the kingdom almost. Every day sadder and sadder news of its encrease. In the City died this week 7,496 and of them 6,102 of the plague. But it is feared that the true number of the dead, this week is near 10,000; partly from the poor that cannot be taken notice of, through the greatness of the number, and partly from the Quakers and others that will not have any bell ring for them. … As to myself I am very well, only in fear of the plague, and as much of an ague by being forced to go early and late to Woolwich, and my family to lie there continually.
September 3rd, 1665. Up; and put on my coloured silk suit very fine, and my new periwigg, bought a good while since, but durst not wear, because the plague was in Westminster when I bought it; and it is a wonder what will be the fashion after the plague is done, as to periwiggs, for nobody will dare to buy any haire, for fear of the infection, that it had been cut off of the heads of people dead of the plague. … After dinner left them and I by water to Greenwich, where much ado to be suffered to come into the towne because of the sicknesse, for fear I should come from London, till I told them who I was. … Church being done, my Lord Bruncker, Sir J. Minnes, and I up to the Vestry at the desire of the justices of the Peace, Sir Theo. Biddulph and Sir W. Boreman and Alderman Hooker, in order to the doing something for the keeping of the plague from growing; but Lord! to consider the madness of the people of the town, who will (because they are forbid) come in crowds along with the dead corps to see them buried; but we agreed on some orders for the prevention thereof. Among other stories, one was very passionate, methought, of a complaint brought against a man in the towne for taking a child from London from an infected house. Alderman Hooker told us it was the child of a very able citizen in Gracious Street, a saddler, who had buried all the rest of his children of the plague, and himself and wife now being shut up and in despair of escaping, did desire only to save the life of this little child; and so prevailed to have it received stark-naked into the arms of a friend, who brought it (having put it into new fresh clothes) to Greenwich; where upon hearing the story, we did agree it should be permitted to be received and kept in the towne.
September 4th, 1665. [A]fter dinner to Greenwich, to Sir J. Minnes, where I found my Lord Bruncker, and having staid our hour for the justices by agreement, the time being past we to walk in the Park with Mr. Hammond and Turner, and there eat some fruit out of the King’s garden and walked in the Parke, and so back to Sir J. Minnes, and thence walked home, my Lord Bruncker giving me a very neat cane to walk with; but it troubled me to pass by Coome farme where about twenty-one people have died of the plague, and three or four days since I saw a dead corps in a coffin lie in the Close unburied, and a watch is constantly kept there night and day to keep the people in, the plague making us cruel, as doggs, one to another.
September 6th, 1665. … I looked into the street and saw fires burning in the street, as it is through the whole City, by the Lord Mayor’s order.* Thence by water to the Duke of Albemarle’s: all the way fires on each side of the Thames, and strange to see in broad daylight two or three burials upon the Bankeside, one at the very heels of another: doubtless all of the plague; and yet at least forty or fifty people going along with every one of them.
* Thinking that bad air was involved in the transmission of disease, the authorities ordered giant bonfires to be burned in the streets of London and house fires to be kept burning night and day, in the hope that the air would be cleansed.
September 7th, 1665. Up by 5 of the clock, mighty full of fear of an ague, but was obliged to go, and so by water, wrapping myself up warm, to the Tower, and there sent for the Weekely Bill, and find 8,252 dead in all, and of them 6,878 of the plague; which is a most dreadfull number, and shows reason to fear that the plague hath got that hold that it will yet continue among us.
— posted by Roger W. Smith
April 2020
