Tony Williams
This pandemic makes me feel like: Sad for the people dying and their families. Sad for the people out of work and the small businesses struggling. Anxious about the future. Curious how this strange moment in time we are living in will end. Hopeful we will pull through this.
This pandemic makes me think: What are the lasting effects of this virus going to be? What will this experience change in our society once we’ve returned to normalcy? Will this change how we interact with one another? I think we will recover from this, but I can’t tell if this is a bump in the road or if we are standing on the edge of some new era.
This pandemic makes me hope/pray for: My hope is that going forward we will see safety nets more entrenched in our society. I hope this leads to more acceptance of expanded health care for people and chips away at the reluctance by our government for economic help like universal basic income or raising the minimum wage. I feel for the people working at gas stations and grocery stores and delivery drivers and the other workers who have been deemed essential infrastructure workers and hope this makes clear they deserve to be taken care of better.
What I think of the government’s response: Partisan, looking for someone to blame, no accountability.
Before this pandemic, my plans for the next 6 months were: I have a trip planned to Peru and Easter Island in May but can’t imagine that’s happening now. Was supposed to climb a mountain in Washington in June, we’ll see.
I enjoy traveling so it sucks to bunker down but I’ve been planning a bunch of trips during this period and filing them away for another day.
Recommendations for TV shows, movies, books or podcasts? I’ve been reading a biography of Everett Ruess, a young man in the 1930s from LA who goes on this odyssey in the South West, hiking with a donkey all over Arizona and Utah throughout the Canyonlands until his mysterious disappearance. It’s like a 1930s version of the book Into the Wild about the guy who trips across America before being found dead in an abandoned bus up in Alaska. Watching a random assortment of movies: Magnolia, Mystic River, Dog Day Afternoon, &c. It’s cool, but I most enjoy debating friends on small inconsequential parts. Strange how Tiger King is going to be forever associated with Corona Virus now too.
Predictions for when this will get better/end: So if you asked me 3 weeks ago when this began I would have thought maybe within a month things would be starting to turn back to normal. Now I’m starting to think this is going to be with us in some way or another until next year. It’s really unprecedented and there’s no real map of how to foresee it going. I could image too once the shelter-in-place orders are lifted there will be a long hangover period before things begin to feel like they were before this.
What I have in my fridge/freezer and pantry: oranges, sweet potatoes, tofu ice-cream, arugula, garlic, risotto, garbanzo beans, big blocks of Parmesan...I’ve been Cooking a lot more because of all this so learning some new stuff.