L6

On November 2 I said I’d report back about the election on the weekend.  I have decided to fold my comments on that into the Tuesday blog, here, about mid-point in the blog, the paragraph “My School District Results”.

*

Yesterday I watched/listened to the Colin Powell funeral in Washington.  I did a recent blog about Gen. Powell and Robert Gates.  Both men made a positive difference in this country, I feel.  This is a time of personal reflection for me: looking back, looking ahead.

This past week, I noted that it now over 600 days since the Pandemic first began to interfere with my life.  Day Zero was March 6, 2020.  Storm clouds about Covid-19 were already gathering.  March 5 we had been to two events: the Minnesota Orchestra, and in the evening, a fundraiser for a climate change advocacy organization.  At both events there was a sense of uncertainty, but still all-in.  March 6,I stopped by my daughters to recommend an upcoming Orchestra event I’d noticed in the program.  She advised that it was time to start to lie low.  Her warning was just a little early for me.  She gave us masks she’d made.  The following Sunday, March 15, 2020, I ushered at the last Mass for many months at Basilica; on Tuesday, March 17, I was going to meet Kathy, my Irish friend, for breakfast in then still open restaurant.  But Tuesday morning, the restaurant closed, along with most everything else.

My story is one of hundreds of millions, including yours.  At the beginning, and in the middle, and even now, no one could predict the end nor the immense loss of life and other disruption of what we thought of as ‘normal’ lives.  The stories continue.  Disruptions of all kinds.  Crazy times.

This week I spent my time reading a second book about the Pandemic: “The Premonition” by Michael Lewis.  I finished it yesterday.  I’d recommend it to everyone, as I earlier recommended “Preventable” by Andy Slavitt.   Here are the dust jackets for both books.

There are numerous books, articles and endless opinions about the Pandemic which we’ve all lived within.  I think I got lucky in finding out about these two books, hearing the authors speak about the book, and reading both from cover to cover.  Andy Slavitt was administrator of Medicare and Medicaid Services in the Obama administration , then returned as a temporary Senior Advisor to the COVID-19 Response Coordinator in the Biden administration.  Michael Lewis is a well known author who tells an absolutely riveting story from the viewpoints of people very few of us have ever heard of – the unsung heroes to the national disaster we’ve lived through – and many have perished from….

L6?  Why this odd title?

You need to read “The Premonition” to figure out why I picked those two letters.  (if you want to cheat, next time at a bookstore go to p. 230, start at the end of the page and read the paragraph there.  I contend we all can be an “L6”.  It’s a tough job.  We all have to do it for national survival.

*

In the first line of this post, I say it is now over 600 days since the Covid-19 Pandemic began in the U.S.

The two books pictured above provide a huge amount of food for thought, not only the history, but where each and every one of us – the L6’s – fit in, not only in this crisis, but in every event of significance that affects our community.

These are books that are not for entertainment; rather for reflection.

Make the investment, and take the time.

POSTNOTE: In at least one instance, one book crosses into the other.  Lewis mentions Andy Slavitt in the last paragraph of pp 237-238; Slavitt mentions Victory over Covid-19 at pages 99-101, 109, and 116.  If you read these references and wonder why I refer to them here, just ask….