The other day, as I was walking through school and passing the lobby area at the bottom of a staircase where all the seniors hang out, I was surprised to find them listening to ABBA's song "Waterloo." That song was old even in my day, and it's almost a half-century old now! It would be the equivalent of me listening to Marlene Dietrich or Bing Crosby while I was in high school. Once again I was struck by the enthusiasm young people show for older music, though they do listen to current stuff too, sometimes.
They won't be listening to it today, though -- at least not at school -- because yesterday was our final day with students. (The seniors were actually done last week.) We have two more days of work, but there's honestly not a whole lot to do. The library is pretty much organized. I'm not sure how I'm going to keep myself busy.
I finished Rebecca Makkai's "The Great Believers" yesterday. What a fantastic book! It was sad, of course, being mostly about the impact of AIDS on gay men and their allies in 1980s Chicago, but it had a depth and maturity that impressed me. It really drove home the transience of life and love and all our human striving.
As I've told Dave, we will look back on the years we're living right now and think of them as a sort of golden time -- being in London, having our garden, having Olga. We will eventually lose it all, because the garden is rented and the dog is old, and that's the nature of life. Even London won't last forever -- certainly not for us, because we ourselves are finite. "The Great Believers" made me appreciate all that.
It also brought back the fearfulness and uncertainty of the AIDS era, just as the TV show "It's a Sin" did for me when we watched it several weeks ago.
Speaking of fearfulness and uncertainty, I passed this group of protesters on Finchley Road on Tuesday evening while walking home from work. They were out spreading anti-vaccine leaflets about spike proteins and other pseudo-science. I picked one up and I was intrigued to see that nowhere did it say what organization put it together or who paid for the printing. At the moment I took this picture, a passing motorcyclist was arguing with the woman in the middle, telling her to get involved in something more important, like getting rid of Boris Johnson. "This is the most important thing right now," she replied.
It's not unlike the fear and disinformation that swirled around AIDS back in the '80s, come to think of it, except that AIDS served as a sort of fuel to discriminate against specific groups of people. Covid (and Covid vaccines) are a more tangibly universal issue.
Anyway, there's a lot of wackiness out there.
(Top photo: Our beach asters, backed by our homemade stepping stones.)
These “Covid Protesters” make me crazy.
ReplyDeleteI was just thinking again about the friends I had who died of AIDS complications in the ´80s and ’90s. I remember being in San Francisco for a week in ’89 and finding Castro Street to be like a ghost town. So grateful to know people who survived all that — and all the hate.
I like your home made stepping stone :)
ReplyDeleteI remember all the fuss about AIDS and being glad none of my family was ever affected.
Now I'm glad none of my family ever got covid, although it is still around, just as AIDS is, and catching it is possible. But we are all vaccine believers and get shots every year for anything that goes around.
I agree with the motorcyclist. Why on earth would those people put their time and energy into such a ridiculous cause? How come they think they know better than everyone else and where did they find the key to the treasury of superior knowledge?
ReplyDeleteI remember the fear and uncertainty around AIDS. I’m glad none of that was around Covid… at least for me.
ReplyDeleteI vividly remember the years of AIDS and the fear among everyone, the confusion about how it was transmitted, people being afraid to be in the same room! Terrible injustice done by the medical community with some shining exceptions, to AIDS patients. I'm not sure I can relive it by reading this book, but people too young to have been affected might do well to learn about it. It's amazing that it's now a manageable long term illness, not a terminal diagnosis. Thankful for that.
ReplyDelete"The garden is rented and Olga is old." So elegant and true. Poetry.
I was profoundly moved by reading "And The Band Played On". It was a terrible time and people were so afraid. I have a good friend who was part of some of the original studies on what became the successful treatment of AIDS. Tony Fauci was involved in that and he and my friend are still in touch on a friend basis.
ReplyDeleteI lost a couple of good friends to AIDS back then. We knew so little and of course there weren't the treatments or preventives available back then. And so much misinformation. A sad time. In a way, now it's Covid -- or at least when Covid started. The conspiracy theories really upset me. I don't see how people can be so gullible and yet that's the nature of life, I suppose, for some.
ReplyDeleteYes, I do think these may be golden years. And that in itself is pretty sad.
We lost so many good people back then to AIDS. Now the same for COVID. Regarding the wacky protesters, they worry me. Why do some people cultivate ignorance?
ReplyDeleteI am sure you will be celebrating Friday evening when "school's out for summer"!
ReplyDeleteDisinformation is alive and thriving in the USA and thanks to social media the crazies are louder than ever. It is frightening really.
Whenever I think about the time of AIDS my eyes fill with tears. Such a sad and heartbreaking time in so many ways. Why does iignorance persist?
ReplyDeleteI hear that comment "Can we trust the media" quite often as an excuse to believe something else. They don't seem to believe the mainstream media but they obviously believe a group who won't even put their source information on their written materials. How is that more trustworthy?
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteWackiness! Good word to describe things in the world today. Yes, the movie makes us stop and think about changes that are coming. Too often people tend to put off decisions until it hits them.
It seems odd to me that there are still vaccine protesters at this point. Shouldn't they have gone by the wayside months ago? I still have one grandchild under the age of five that I'm hoping can get his soon.
ReplyDeleteI am very moved by your reflection that you and Dave are living your golden days, and how wise of you to recognize it while still in the midst of them. Yes, we will grow older, but the gold of it all can endure, despite the wackiness outside our door. I'm excited for you, entering another summer free as a bird. The joy of teaching.
ReplyDeleteI remember all the AIDS misinformation. When I was in Zambia in 1987 I had a coworker who wouldn't take a glass of water from someone because she might get infected (?!) and we were all convinced that it might be spread by mosquitoes. Craziness. Of course at the beginning of COVID there was concern that it might be spread by touching something that someone with COVID had handled and that turned out to mostly not be an issue.
ReplyDeleteI know that Mike would disagree, but I think we're also living in a kind of personal golden era. Our lives are not half bad at the moment, worry about dads notwithstanding.
I'm sad that the anti-vaccine crap is even over in the UK although here it's more prevalent. (and terrifying) I'm delighted that you enjoyed "The Great Believers" as it was a great favorite of mine, poignant though it was. I got so attached to the characters and the writing was lovely.
ReplyDeleteEvery time I see these anti-vax folks with their signs and junk science claims I wonder if they realize that their parents had them vaccinated against many other diseases and they were likely fine with it. But now all of a sudden the Covid vaccine is full of microchips, is the mark of the beast or some other utterly ridiculous garbage. What changed????
ReplyDeleteWhat a lovely post. Soak up the golden days. I hold tight to Franklin, knowing he won't be with me many more years.
ReplyDeleteLove,
Janie
I lost so many friends to
ReplyDeleteaids, misunderstood disease, victimized further by "god's revenge on
Queers"...Heart breaking to say the very least. Revisited by the rumors of monkey pox being transmitted by same sex sex. It is a white straight male empire here- Gay, black, female- all take a hit.
As the level of stupid ratchets up in the US, so does the volume of their voices. Their goal is to flood the zone with misinformation and drown out the truth. I think it's working.
ReplyDeleteWe learn nothing; we keep making the same mistakes now that we made then.
ReplyDeleteI guess that there are stupid people on both sides of the pond.
ReplyDeleteWackiness is afoot everywhere, it seems. So it goes.
ReplyDeleteIt's good, I think, to be reminded now and then that "right now" is the time we'll look back on with happiness at some time in the future. Usually we are barrelling ahead, doing the next thing and meeting the next objective. Any book or film that helps us stop and appreciate the Now is worthwhile.
ReplyDeleteSADS is nothing new. Those fear mongers won't listen to the truth.
ReplyDeleteThe sports commentator Gabby Logan's brother died many years ago of that as a young fit footballer.
It's just unbelievable that people won't just not get the vaccine if they think there's something not right about it but they go out and spread lies, "People aren't dying from covid, they're dying from the vaccine!", and actively try to get others to not get the vaccine with zero proof that what they are saying is true.
ReplyDeleteAnd as for the students listening to old music, you gotta admit our music is way cooler than our parents music was.
ReplyDeleteHi Steve, while I'm a someone who comments less often on your posts, nevertheless I've visited in the past and seen that we visit similar blog sites. The fear factor people are spreading by protests like this one is amazing to myself and others as well. Unfortunately, Covid has killed people but the threats have been significantly diminished in recent months. Misinformation comes from many sources which is why I tend to read as little news as possible and also to read several sites, but never daily.
ReplyDeleteMitchell: I went to SF in 1990 and I didn't even go to the Castro. I couldn't do it.
ReplyDeleteRiver: I'm amazed no one in your family got Covid! Seems like almost everyone here has had it at least once.
YP: There's a weird kind of psychology that encourages people to believe in conspiracies -- basically it helps them feel a sense of belonging and insider knowledge. There are articles about it. Quite interesting.
Ed: Well, there are some parallels, though -- that sense of uncertainty and fear, particularly at the beginning.
Boud: I remember all that too. The only downside of the manageable illness aspect of modern AIDS is that people are no longer afraid (and thus not careful) about catching it.
Ms Moon: That was a fantastic book. I couldn't bring myself to finish it, it upset me so much. I think I got about 2/3 of the way through. And then the ultimate, ironic cruelty -- that Randy Shilts himself should die from AIDS.
Jeanie: I think there's something in the human character that makes some people very suspicious and skeptical -- some more than others. And then that skepticism can take an unhealthy turn. It's funny that they're skeptical of doctors and scientists but NOT people typing on the Internet in their basements in the middle of the night!
Colette: Well, in a way, I understand it. People HAVE been lied to about so many things. Now they're taking that skepticism to unhealthy levels.
Ellen D: Yeah, it IS unfortunate the way social media amplifies the voices of those with no real knowledge.
Robin: It was a terrible time.
Sharon: I know -- that's what blows my mind!
Red: It really IS wacky!
Kelly: I know. You'd think by now the controversy would essentially have passed since we've all been vaccinated and we're all still here. There are people still waiting for us to drop dead, though, so they can crown triumphantly that we were killed by the vaccine.
37P: I try to remind myself of that whenever I get frustrated or unhappy for whatever reason. We ARE in a special time!
Bug: Well, the mosquito thing was a real fear in Florida, too! I remember when Haitians began getting it in higher numbers there was a fear they were somehow being infected by mosquitoes.
Margaret: It was SUCH an impressive book!
Jim: I know! It makes no sense! They argue that the Covid vaccine isn't like those other vaccines because it doesn't fully prevent the illness and it has mRNA and spike proteins and blah blah blah. Junk science indeed.
Janie: That's all we can do with pets that we love!
Linda Sue: I know! When I saw that news about Monkeypox I thought, "Oh, geez, cue the homophobia -- here we go again!"
Allison: It's certainly working with the election disinformation. So many voters feel less confidence in our electoral systems now.
Bob: Wasn't that a "Star Trek" episode?
Michael: Sadly, yes, there are -- but the evangelical strain of Jesus-freak science denial isn't here to the same degree it is in the states.
Catalyst: Human nature!
Jenny-O: Absolutely. We can't really hang on to moments but I try to grab on when I can and really SEE what's happening around me so I can look back on it someday!
Ellen: I would love to know who they're listening to and where they're getting their information.
Beatrice: I think they key is to know where our information is coming from and what their agenda might be. These people aren't asking enough questions about the source of their info.