Now And Today, December 3, 2020

The risings. That’s what we’ve got. Going up across the board.

The spread of the virus—rising. The extent of anger over actions taken and not taken—rising. The level of frustration with those who don’t agree with you—rising. The chances of vaccines—rising. The probability that Christmas and the holidays look nothing like previous versions—rising. The strain on staffing in healthcare—rising. The shakiness of businesses with exposure to economic calamity—rising. The stock market—rising. The mismatch and disconnection between various pieces and segments of life—rising. The certainty that a new calendar year is part of improvement and the departure of the virus—rising. And so it goes.

Maybe it’s a good idea for you to line up your risings. List the ones that quickly come to mind. Stack them together. See what pops up, your immediate impressions. It might be helpful to see any glaring results. The not-glaring results are good, too. Do this for you or for you and your loved ones because, God knows, you won’t find much that stands up to scrutiny elsewhere. No one will do it for you.

Take an American moment and know your risings.

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Then, December 3, 1918

You can look back and see it was different. Back then, early in the autumn season and down to now, it’s clear that the influenza pandemic caught fire, burned like hell, raged on, and by now is falling back. There aren’t many leaves left to drop from the trees. You stand here today and in your mind you know things were different a few months ago, weeks ago, days ago. You may not know much else but you do know this today.

In Oshkosh, Wisconsin the school superintendent and the public health director agree. Time to open up. Looking back, it was worse and now it’s at least marginally better.

In Los Angeles, California the entire city is opening up again after a lengthy lockdown. Daily life tip-toes forward and unlocks the door. Feelings of relief and unease mingle.

Similar desires are true in Evanston, Illinois and Seattle, Washington. The problem is that in the town north of Chicago influenza is again reported; new cases emerge. A quarantine may go back into effect but nothing has been decided yet. Wait and see from one half-day to the next. In Washington’s largest port city the cases jump up as well. Again like Evanston, the question of quarantine is reconsidered but with one major difference—Seattle’s citizens are hostile to it, aggressively opposed to any return to shutdown. Tensions rise with the cases.

President Woodrow Wilson, POTUS 28, is between yesterday’s State of the Union speech and tomorrow’s departure-from-the-nation event. In the former he spoke about the end of the World War, reminded the American people of all they’ve accomplished in the global conflict, and shared reassurances for uncertainties to come. Through it all, sentence after sentence, paragraph after paragraph, Wilson is silent on the pandemic. Not one word, not one syllable, not one wink or nod or furrowing of the brow about the pandemic that’s killed hundreds of thousands of Americans. Not one damn utterance. Judging by his speech alone, you’d never know a pandemic exists or ever existed. The anxiety in Evanston and Seattle would be inexplicable.

Wilson is finishing preparations to sail tomorrow for France on an ocean-liner. Important business at hand. Got to start working now—right now—on the post-war world. After all, his public-relations team has been hammering away for months on the sentiment “the war to end all wars” as justification for going to war in the first place. Well, “the war” part of it is done. Now POTUS wants to begin on the “end all wars” component.

The ship awaits. POTUS dreams of leaving and of future plans.

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Looking Ahead From Today, December 3, 2020

Take today and the river of time flowing into today for what they are. You and they are here together. That’s the present tense of time. You know where you’re standing. But don’t spend all of yourself on knowing it. That’s a waste to devote all to life’s thinnest slice.

Get ready for your ship. Like Wilson, a vessel waits for you. It’s poised to push off and head toward a destination. You need to get that destination in your head now. Don’t wait for better days, for clearer times. They’ll get here soon enough on their own. Your effort won’t speed them up.

But your effort will make the vital difference in the ship. No one else can build it, stock it, prep it for use. You can. You’ll need some help, of course. You know that already. You also know that the help from other people cannot substitute for your individual work in bringing the ship into existence, into definition, the outbound harbor.

At the start of this entry I urged you to do the tri-ups—the line-up, stack-up, pop-up. In closing, I’d like you to think about a new ship ready to sail as we turn from one year to the next. What better time to do it? You’ll gain a new source of energy and focus in this new ship. You need it for a lot of reasons, including a renewal of resilience in this Wave of the pandemic, the commonsense realization that a new year is in the offing, and not least, for a steady start in the emotional shift from pandemic to normalcy. Coming up, the standard new year’s resolutions won’t do. Nothing less than a fresh and fast ship is called for.

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For Those Wanting To Bridge 2020 And 1918, A Reminder…

Warfluenza and Warcorona.

Warfluenza is what Americans experienced in 1918 when influenza interacted with their dominant issue and concern of the day, World War One. The illness comes to them through their handling of and coping with World War One. That’s why I want you to think of it as Warfluenza. The pandemic and the issue affect each other.

Warcorona is what Amercians are experienced in 2020 when coronavirus interacts with our dominant issue and concern of the day, World War Trump. Regardless of whether you love or hate Trump, Trumpism, and the Trump Presidency, it blends with the illness and thus we handle and cope with both together, inseparable. It’s Warfluenza updated to our world—Warcorona.

I want to reintroduce you to the world of Warfluenza’s Wave Two because we’re in Warcorona’s Wave Two right now with preschool-to-grad school education. If you have someone somewhere in that track, you’re in Wave Two. And so we’re following Warfluenza and Warcorona on exactly the same days across 102 years. Mark Twain is supposed to have said that history doesn’t repeat but it sure does rhyme. Count me as a “yes” to that statement.

As always, I invite you to reach out to me. Leave a comment here, email at dan@historicalsolutions.com , or text at 317-407-3687.