Let Me Introduce You to Your Next Worry!!

I have made excellent use of this quarantine thing by plowing through some great classic works of literature that I had never gotten around to reading. First it was Middlemarch, then The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius, and just last night I finished, Anna Karenina. While it's true that great big old Russian novels, particularly anything by Tolstoy, can be thickly ponderous things, I thought Anna was brilliant. The old weirdo could write, my friends. There’s a scene in the book where he describes a group of peasants and himself mowing a field of tall grass with scythes. The writing is so beautifully rendered you can smell the grass, hear the sweep of the blade and feel the tightness in your back and shoulders by the time he is through. Incredible.

Then, while scanning through some business news articles—something I don’t recommend—I stumble across a piece in The Atlantic that informs me that not only should I feel appropriate shame and guilt for my white privilege, my stable family privilege, my wealth privilege and all the rest, now there’s another privilege for me to confess to...flour privilege!! That’s right, ladies and gentlemen, it would appear that we have bought up practically every pound of processed wheat left in America for the purposes of satisfying our baking itch. In so doing I suppose we have hogged it all and now there’s a shortage of flour. If it weren’t for that British Baking Show, we wouldn’t be acting this way. I’m not kidding y’all. This is a real thing...

One thing that we will never run out of in this country? Things to feel guilty about, worry about and fret over. There will always be some new fresh catastrophe right around the corner to feed our ulcers. We will never, ever exhaust the raw materials from which our anxieties are manufactured. It is an infinitely renewable resource.

My Reopening Plan

Traffic has picked up on Broad Street. The parking lots around my office are starting to fill up. The lot at Lowe's the other day looked like they were giving away free beer. Whatever might be happening at my State Capital or up in Washington, and no matter what might be happening with the actual Coronavirus, the American people seem to be voting with their feet, and their verdict seems to be...enough already.

This coming Friday, my State begins Phase one of the great reopening. Assuming that there is no corresponding spike in transmissions, two weeks later, Phase two will begin. Like everything else in America, how one feels about this reopening seems to fall along party lines, Democrats generally being against it, while Republicans are for it. Of course, these stances are not absolute. I’m sure that there are plenty of Democrat small business owners out there who are desperate to reopen, while there are also plenty of Republican lobbyists not so keen to hop back on a packed airplane anytime soon. But what about me...Mr. In Between?

It’s weird. We’ve been at this going on nine weeks now. Pam and I have been very careful to abide by every guideline and mandate that has come down. Still, neither of us know anyone who has gotten sick and died from COVID-19. We suspect maybe that our daughter in law might have had it, but that’s about it. Of course, that’s anecdotal and by no means illustrative of anything other than our good fortune. If numbers from Johns Hopkins are to be believed, the United States has had over a million cases and over 80,000 deaths so far. This number is higher than the predictions from the last White House briefing I watched from three or four weeks ago when they were estimating the total deaths would peak at 60,000. This past weekend Pam and I attended a wedding which perfectly illustrates the conundrum in which we find ourselves. The fact that this wedding was held at a drive-in theatre tells you that the families involved were taking the Coronavirus seriously. And yet, when we arrived, the first thing that happened was, my wife and the mother of the groom found each other ...and hugged. Then they separated, startled by the embrace with an exasperated look on their faces...Is this ok? I don’t know, but I’m so happy to see you I just can’t help myself..its a wedding for God’s sake!!! I think that this is how most of us are feeling. We understand that COVID-19 is deadly serious, but as human beings we just don’t know how to proceed, what is proper and what isn’t.

In this regard it sure would help if we could agree on the facts. It would be such a relief if we all had a source of numbers and information that we could all trust. At this point, anything I hear from either the White House or anyone in Congress is highly suspect. Even the veracity of the CDC and WHO have been called into question. One minute I hear one thing, a couple days later the exact opposite, and usually from the same source! It is maddening.

Here are just a few of the many conflicting things I have heard recently:

Kids can’t get it.

Kids can get it.

Animals don’t carry the virus.

Dogs can get it.

Once you’ve been exposed to the virus, you have immunity.

No, you don’t.

We are at least a year away from a vaccine.

A breakthrough might come sooner than you think.

We shouldn’t open until we have a cure...a vaccine.

Forget that, there are so many mutations out there we will probably need several vaccines.

Wearing face masks are critically important.

Wearing face masks makes little difference. At best a placebo effect since it makes the wearer feel safer.

Everyone needs to be tested before we can reopen safely.

That’s impossible and unneeded. We only need to test at risk populations in hotspots.

We are already past the worst of this.

The second wave of this will be twice as bad as what we have seen so far.

People who are sheltered in place in their homes at this point are babies and cowards.

People who are going about their lives are selfish money grabbers.

So, yeah. 

Here’s my plan. I am going to do my best to follow the guidelines handed down by my state and local government. I will wear a face mask when I go inside a store. I will continue to wash my hands a half dozen times a day. I will continue to use hand sanitizer every time I get in my car. When the restaurants open, I will probably limit myself to those with outdoor seating. I will still do my best to honor the six feet distance rule when interacting with others. Probably won’t shake anyone’s hands for quite a while. I will be patient with my church when it decides to reopen...I won’t get bent if I don’t get one of the tickets to attend the service I like. My business will slowly start allowing in-office appointments. We are still trying to figure that out. My gut feeling is that it will take several months of this reopening before I start feeling more normal with regards to personal interaction. It won’t be the end of the world if I have to alter a few lifestyle choices going forward, but they will have to be my choice, my decision as an informed, free citizen.

For me caution will be the theme of any reopening. And also, that old Ronald Reagan line comes to mind...Trust, but verify.

My Daughter’s Birthday

Today is my daughter’s birthday. The very first time her birthday rolled around after I started this blog was in 2011, nine years ago. That’s when I wrote what follows. I have attempted other birthday tributes, but none have ever been able to improve on my first attempt. I read it at her wedding as well, because when I was trying to decide what to say at that momentous occasion, I found that I kept coming back to...this.

Kaitlin Elizabeth Dunnevant. I’ve always liked the way her name rolled off the tongue. Lots of letters and syllables coming together to make a pretty sound. On her birthday I will take a minute to make a partial list of the many things that come together to make her so wonderful.

* She is the lump in my throat every time I watch Father of the Bride.

* She is the unexpected catch in my voice whenever I brag about her at work.

* In a life of mistakes she is evidence that I got something right.

* She is the smile on my face every time I see a blonde curly-haired two year old in a yellow dress.

* She was the pit in my stomach whenever teenage boys with bad intentions came around, and they all had bad intentions.

* When her softball team lost a thrilling game in the bottom of the last inning she was the only one with tears coming down her cheeks. She may be the most competitive Dunnevant of them all. It’s a glorious thing.

* On the five minute drive to school in second grade I could always make her smile at least once no matter how miserable she was and no matter how hard she tried not to.

* I marvel at the level of discipline she has developed.

* She is the pride I feel when I see her curled up on the sofa reading yet another book. My gift to her.

* When I see her fierce loyalty to friends, her tender heart to the less fortunate, her love and devotion to all things family I realize how amazing my grandchildren will be to behold.

* She is the shame I feel still that I spent the first 24 hours of her life disappointed that she wasn’t a son.

Happy birthday to my brave, talented, and beautiful girl with the beautiful name...even though her and I both know that her real name is  Kato Tomato.

Lucy’s Complaint

I try hard not to be drama queen. Hard when I live in booby-trapped house with my humans. Every day find new horror. It not enough that humans not concerned with out of control ceiling fan, trash can, peoples walking just outside of house with small doggers. They not see ghosts that live in corners of every room in house! Every day they walk down scary stairs without caution and expect me to follow them! Not in million years...I must first inspect condition of stair, check light and condition of wind like any self respect dogger. Well, this morning come latest crazy...

I come down for breakfast and not believe what I see. I stop short even though I hungry. I think...is this joke? Human think weird things funny sometime. I look around but nobody laughing. I take closer look. What fresh cat hell is this? Human has put kibble in...water bowl!! I make closer inspect. No two ways about...they have put kibble in water bowl and expect me to eat it. To make matter worst they compound foolish by putting water in kibble bowl!! Chip in very wrong place. Make it impossible to eat without grave worry. Do they not see problem?? I so hungry I could eat cat, but make no difference. Too much danger. Human plead with me to eat. Easy for her to say. Her not eating food out of wrong bowl!

Eventually, I summon courage of ancestors to endure wrong bowl fiasco. Human try very hard...but honestly!!

The Murder of Ahmaud Arbery

My son has taken up running of late. He wants to train to run in a 10 K. Back before the Coronavirus, he would run in a neighborhood adjacent to his office during his lunch hour. Suppose that one day during one of his runs he was gunned down by a couple of vigilantes who wrongly suspected him of a burglary in that neighborhood. Then imagine that the two vigilantes were a black father and son. Cops arrive at the scene and quickly determine that they have probable cause to arrest the two killers but when they present their evidence to the district attorney, who is also black, she refuses to do so because one of the killers used to work for her. The killers go free for two months, my son’s murder in cold blood is ignored and there is no justice for him. How would any of you expect me to react to such injustice? 

But Doug, you might say, wouldn’t this story be just as tragic without mentioning the race of the people involved? Sure it would. But that’s exactly the point. Try to imagine this happening where the victim is white, the assailants and the district attorneys are black and no arrest is made until a video surfaces two months later? You can’t. Because it never would happen. That is the tragedy of what has happened to Ahmaud Arbery in Brunswick, Georgia. It took three district attorneys to finally summon the gumption to arrest Gregory and Travis McMichael for the brutal murder and it took a leaked video splashed all over social media to accomplish that. 

I have written many times in this space about the two separate but unequal systems of justice in this country, one for the rich, powerful and well-connected, and a second for everybody else. This is not a distinctly American problem. It is as old as justice itself. But too often in this country, the people most victimized by the injustices of the system are either black or brown. It can’t be denied by any reasonable person. It is a stain on us and should make all of us angry. I cannot speak for this young man’s family. I can’t begin to understand what they are going through right now. But, there’s one thing I do know. If the victim were my son, I would become the Glynn County Police Department’s worst nightmare.

The attorney for the victim’s family said it best, “They did not arrest the killers of Ahmaud Arbery because they saw the video, they arrested the killers of Ahmaud Arbery because we saw the video.”

Shameful.

Mother’s Day and a Wedding

So, last night we had the fourth different couple over for dinner on our deck over the past three weeks. This time it was my in-laws, Russ and Vi White. Pam wanted to celebrate Mother’s Day a little early since the forecast for Sunday isn’t great. We ordered a meal from Taziki’s which was delicious. Then Pam served up strawberry shortcake for dessert. After dinner we sat around a fire like we have done at least a thousand times up at Dummer’s Beach in Maine. Lucy entertained us with her frisbee-catching skills. It was a lovely evening.

This woman is the only Mother I have left, my Mom having passed away eight years ago. Vi White has been just about the best mother-in-law anyone could ask for in our 36 years of marriage. Whenever we have needed her for anything, she has dropped everything to help. Never once has she interfered in our lives. She has loved and doted on our kids and their spouses. She has even tolerated the constant succession of golden retrievers running around our house all these years, quite the accomplishment for an unrepentant cat person. So, on this Mother’s Day weekend, I salute her.

Tomorrow, we will be attending a socially distant wedding at a drive-in theatre in Christiansburg, Virginia and we are so psyched. We will get in our car and drive three hours, pull into our spot, watch the proceedings from inside our car, then drive three hours back home. I’m thinking about wearing a dress shirt, tie and suit coat along with pajama bottoms and tennis shoes! It’s supposed to be 48 degrees in Christiansburg tomorrow. I’m worried the poor bride is going to freeze to death, but...what price, love?

My Protest Beard

It’s been two weeks since I last shaved. How does it look? Suffice it it to say that I look like an extra in a Zombie apocalypse movie, or for my older readers, I very much resemble Humphrey Bogart in the African Queen. I haven’t had a haircut since the 3rd of March which only adds to the stranded on a deserted island look. I could allow Pam a turn at giving me a trim, and, I could shave. But I choose this version of myself for the moment. Why? Because frankly, it feels right. Call it my protest beard.

Don’t misunderstand. I’m not “protesting” against government overreach or bureaucratic incompetence. I’m kinda over that. I’m not even protesting the orgy of corporate greed on display as publicly traded companies with full access to capital markets gobble up stimulus money designed for small, closely held businesses...greed being an ancient vice, nothing new under the sun and all that. No, I’m just protesting the giant, unmitigated disaster that 2020 has become. I figure if this entire year is going to slouch along in such an unkempt, disheveled, thoroughly unbuttoned fashion, why shouldn’t I??

But, I am supposed to be a professional man. Consequently, I feel a twang of guilt when I catch a glimpse of myself in the mirror, enough to make me question the whole no shaving thing but not enough to make me change my behavior. So, like all emotionally conflicted people, I have constructed a compromise...just for today. Wednesday’s agenda does not include any FaceTime appointments. Today is full of case planning, bill paying, and an online continuing education course, all of which could be done in my underwear. Instead, I have decided to get dressed up today. For the first time in over two months, I am going to put on dress pants, a dress shirt, real shoes and socks and see if I have forgotten how to tie a tie. Yes my friends, I am going to dress like I used to dress for a face to face appointment with human beings back before the Coronavirus. I can only hope that I don’t get pulled over by a cop on my way to work:

Me: Yes, Officer? I feel certain that I was going the posted speed limit.

Cop: What? Are you some sort of wise guy? Where do you think you’re going dressed like that?

Me: Like...what?

Cop: What’s that thing around your neck?!

Me: It’s a silk tie.

Cop: So, you going to a funeral or something? You expect me to believe you’re headed to church??

Me: No no...I’m going into the office. It’s just around the corner.

Cop: Out of the car please!! And keep those hands where I can see ‘em!  Wait...you’re wearing dress shoes, with SOCKS? That’s it buddy. I’ll have to take you in for questioning.

Me: But I’m not...

Cop: Save it for the judge, fancy pants!!