Gardunia's in 2020

Merry Christmas and looking forward to the New Year!

So this was a year. . . So much seemed to happen this year that we weren't really expecting.  Going into January we were expecting to start preparing to move to Scotland and thinking about all the changes that would bring.  I travelled to Mexico for meetings at CIMMYT and did not expect that to be end of my travel for 2020. I had tickets purchased even for trips to Africa, Scotland, and Mexico that were never used. Then as we got closer to March, it was beginning to look like Covid was going to disrupt those plans.  I started working from home.  The kids activities were cancelled, school moved virtual, and I must have checked the covid monitoring site at John's Hopkins a billion times.  

Although there were rough spots globally - climate change effects on wildfires, melting glaciers, and environment, all the protests for racial justice and equality, all the election craziness, this was a year that we were able to learn a lot of new things. I went skiing for the first time.  Aleah mastered beading and bread making.  Emily has really leaned into ceramics.  Leila has been working on new patterns sponsored by Michael Miller fabrics along with YouTube video tutorials, paper patterns, and distributing to fabric stores.  Colleen at the beginning of the year took gymnastics, rock climbing, and now has joined the swim team.  Kate programmed actively on Scratch this summer and has loved using the wacom pad to do graphic art.  Becca and I read a ton of books this year - all of the Harry Potter books, Narnia, and so many others.  She also has become the best pen pal, writing letters to her friends from school. 

Interviews with the kids about this year below - minimally edited for clarity.  

Becca

Best - Wild Kratts autograph - they wrote her back and sent a signed post card. First letter from Cindy, going to the cabin. Calling Esther and writing letters. Visiting Cindy. Making tamales. 

Worst - pollution and covid

School - Zoom, independent study always having to wear masks

Media - Wild Kratts, SheRa, Gravity Falls, Hilda, audiobooks on Epic and Sora. 

Books - Serpents secret, Harry Potter, Narnia, Wolves of the Beyond, Frog and Toad

Kate

Best - playing with Nora and the Gardunia/Cannon Bubble.  Making cookies, brownie recipe - double chocolate from Martha Stewart's Cookies. 

Favorite memory - Nora and Kate made a really huge cookie.  Added too much milk and then mixed too much.  Bubbled in the oven and then put it in ice cream

School: Online - likes being able to manage self - own space and can take breaks. Doesn't like that it is more fact-based and less experiential because harder to show, see, and experiment online. 

Worst - wildfires, covid19

Video: Dr Who - Top recommendation, Sherlock, Shera - Catra + Adora forever, Nightvale, webtoon, Scratch, 

Music: Dode, Alex Benjamin, AJR

Books: SuperNova, Renegades, Life of Pi, Last Wings of Fire book

Aleah

Best - bread and beading. Favorite bread: Rosemary focaccia https://www.americastestkitchen.com/recipes/6144-rosemary-focaccia

Favorite memory of the year - getting the robot through the maze in robotics

Worst - quarantine and the library being closed.

Recs - Mandalorian, Magnus Archives, Wolf 359, Alice isn't Dead, Gravity Falls, House on Mango St, webtoons, 

Colleen

Best - in school at the beginning of the year and going to the cabin this summer. New hobbies - Swimming hard - 2 hr practices 4-5 days a week.  Gymnastics and climbing last spring. Zoom meetings and wacom pad. Pride Month and black lives matter on YouTube

Worst - staying at home for covid19, six grade camp cancelled. Time doesn't make any sense

Media - Good Place, Gilmore Girls, The Office, Parks and Rec, DeAngelo Wallace, the Come-up

Internet - webtoons, Sora, Zoom, Spotify

Books - Cassie West, reading Land of Stories with Becca, Hunger Games, Cinder, Matched, Allie Carter

Music - Ariana Grande, Billie Eilish, Melanie Martinez, Olivia Obrien, Haley Steinfield, B. Miller

Looking forward to covid vaccine, going back to school, life not being so boring.  

Emily

I didn't interview her for this -  I can't believe she is already 20 years old!!  She continues to do well at Truman.  She lives off campus and has been working at Starbucks and HyVee. Celia, her girlfriend, did her basic training for the army this fall. She has been focusing on ceramics - making a bunch of pots, cups, mugs, planters, and next year will work in the ceramics studio part time.  Check out her instagram for all of her art and updates. 

Leila

Best - Hanging out with family , quarter system at highschool made it easier, especially with online, pool opened this summer, working out almost every day this year - Jillian Michael's Kickbox and youtube: SugarPop. Lots of walks in the neighborhood. Food recomendations - Aleah's bread, Cheesy eggs - 1/2 onion, bell pepper, cheese, 3 eggs. Pero + hot chocolate

Worst - The stay-at-home orders, spring virtual school, election stress, constant uncertainty, school start, constant change with not enough info.  Business has been a little stagnant.  

Quarantine hobbies - historical costuming - started making shift and stays.  would love to go to Versaille costume party 2021. 

Rec Podcasts - Code Switch, Nice white Parents, No Compromise, Throughline.  

Media - Historic clothing videos: Abby Cox, Bernadette Banner, Fashion Justine.  Exercise - Sugarpop fitness. TV - Wolfblood, Poldark, Community, The Crown, The Good Place, Sherlock with Kate at night.  

Looking ahead to 2021 - New block of the month pattern, paper patterns for sale, 6 new patterns, following more activists and quilters. 

Brian

If you made it this far, more about my year. 

Good -  Skiing, long bike rides, and hiking with friends. Trump losing the election over and over again. Working from home and online school went a lot better than I thought it would.  No wasting time commuting to work and cutting work travel meant I was home more - no more staying late at work or being out of town.  I have a new job - getting to focus on one crop, mostly, and also on becoming a better leader and scientist.  I can't say I am not appreciated at work any more.  I really feel like this is a chance to build a team and really do something exciting with cotton this next year. 

I did all the quarantine hobbies - bread - still trying to perfect sourdough rye, gardening, made furniture, faith crisis, running.  I got a new bike and rode the Katy trail and some longer rides to the Arch or to the Mississippi river. I went with a friend last week, crashed, and was totally wore out at like mile 35 - so more work to do.  I blame it on getting old. . . 

Bad - Not moving to Scotland, depression, doubts and losing faith in my religion, anxiety and stress about future and the election.  It is crazy to me that Trump and many of his party refuse still to accept the results of the election. 

Just not being able to make plans.  I totally agree with Colleen time seems to be faster and slower than I expect.  I miss being with people from work, from church, or even just strangers - I miss things like parades, concerts, races, working out at the gym, talking to friends in the cafeteria at work, and all the interpersonal random conversations that seem so impossible now.  

Next year - Hard to really seriously make plans, but thinking about cotton genetics, building a new team, and travel to either UK or New Zealand this summer as part of collaboration with AbacusBio.  I think we will try to go as a family and stay for a couple of months.  I would like to do some more long distance swimming events - maybe all of the Saturday swims at Simpson Lake and then a long distance race this summer?  

Recommendations:

Media - The Expanse Season 4 and 5 were so good.  The Mandalorian was better then the last Star Wars movies.  Youtube: VlogBrothers, The Microcosm, Pitch Meeting, Yale courses online - The Philosophical Foundations of Politics, New Testament History, The Science of Wellbeing.

Plays: The Band's Visit

Music - Brandi Carlile, STL 

Books - I reread mostly old favorites - The Chosen - Chaim Potok, Ursula LeGuin - The Left Hand of Darkness, The New Testament - translation by Thomas Wayment, The Man in the High Castle, Binti by Nnedi Okorafor, The Yiddish Policeman - Michael Chabon, Educated - Tara Westover, Stalin - Stephen Kotkin, Dune - in Spanish, Harry Potter series - English and Spanish, Plastic Magician and Spellbreaker by Charlie N Holmberg, The Curse of Chalion by Lois McMaster Bujold - Highly recommended, The Fated Sky - Mary Robinette, Murderbot series - Martha Wells, The legend of Hermana Plunge by Angela Liscom Clayton, Dragonback series - Timothy Zahn. 

Podcasts - El Hilo, RadioAmbulante, RadioLab, This is Uncomfortable, Reply All, Throughline, Dear Hank and John, Levar Burton Reads, The Anthropocene Reviewed, Nice White Parents, Preach.

Extra fun. Becca made this video about the cat.  She is getting older and moving slower.  She had a bad limp for most of the year as her arthritis was getting worse, but the new medicine seems to help. 

Can I submit an amicus brief to the Supreme Court?

 I would like to say Amen to Pennsylvania's brief to the latest Trump attempt at overturning the election results:

For their whole filing

From the introduction:

PRELIMINARY STATEMENT 

Since Election Day, State and Federal courts throughout the country have been flooded with frivolous lawsuits aimed at disenfranchising large swaths of voters and undermining the legitimacy of the election. The State of Texas has now added its voice to the cacophony of bogus claims. Texas seeks to invalidate elections in four states for yielding results with which it disagrees. Its request for this Court to exercise its original jurisdiction and then anoint Texas’s preferred candidate for President is legally indefensible and is an afront to principles of constitutional democracy. 

What Texas is doing in this proceeding is to ask this Court to reconsider a mass of baseless claims about problems with the election that have already been considered, and rejected, by this Court and other courts. It attempts to exploit this Court’s sparingly used original jurisdiction to relitigate those matters. But Texas obviously lacks standing to bring such claims, which, in any event, are barred by laches, and are moot, meritless, and dangerous. Texas has not suffered harm simply because it dislikes the result of the election, and nothing in the text, history, or structure of the Constitution supports Texas’s view that it can dictate the manner in which four other states run their elections. Nor is that view grounded in any precedent from this Court. Texas does not seek to have the Court interpret the Constitution, so much as disregard it.

Why is the Republican party and leaders standing by this attempt to deny the reality that Donald Trump lost this election?

Here is the statement from other states opposing this case:

1.  California, 
2. Colorado, 
3. Connecticut, 
4. Delaware, 
5. Guam, 
6. Hawaii, 
7. Illinois, 
8. Maine, 
9. Maryland, 
10. Massachusetts, 
11. Minnesota, 
12. Nevada, 
13. New Jersey, 
14. New Mexico, 
15. New York, 
16. North Carolina, 
17. Oregon, 
18. Rhode Island, 
19. Vermont, 
20. Virginia, 
21. U.S. Virgin Islands, and 
22. Washington

Here are the states supporting this case and their arguments:

1. Missouri, 
2. Alabama, 
3. Arkansas, 
4. Florida, 
5. Indiana, 
6. Kansas, 
7. Louisiana, 
8. Mississippi, 
9. Montana, 
10. Nebraska, 
11. North Dakota, 
12. Oklahoma, 
13. South Carolina, 
14. South Dakota, 
15. Tennessee, 
16. Utah, and 
17. West Virginia. 

106 Republican legislators also have submitted a statement supporting this case.  I won't list them all, but so disappointed to see this.  I was talking to my friend Young Wha about this case and it really does seem like we are living in different realities.  One where we live in a democracy, and another where loyalty to the president supersedes facts and where even the facts exist in an alternate reality.  

The other groups submitting documents in support of this case are evangelical christian groups - like https://thejusticefoundation.org/ that fights against "forced" abortions? A Christian family org?  Nothing this president has done deserves this support.  

Nothing in this election shows fraud, just that people were allowed to vote using mail in ballots. Which is crazy because so many states allowed mail in ballots and Trump won those states. List here. They aren't in this case.  

2020 so far

Like three months sped by, then we hit March and it has been a year. 

Civilization and the Lies We Love

Let's see if this actually works.  Blogger is getting buggier all the time. 

I have realized some of my favorite youtube/podcasters are as much sermons as they are entertainment.  John Green worked at a hospital as a chaplain.  LeVar Burton went to seminary to become a priest.  At the end of LeVar Burton reads for example, he talks about some of his challenges and experiences.  They are moments of vulnerability and insight that I am surprised at every time.  

You could easily make this into a Sunday talk - add a few scriptures and done.  I think there is such light and inspiration in so many places.  

Not Knowing It All

My name is Brian and I am a chronic know-it-all.  The character I most relate to from Harry Potter is Hermione Granger.  I built an academic and professional career out of being the guy with all the answers. For the last few years I have struggled with my faith, and landed in a place where I no longer know it all and I am beginning to feel like that is OK. 

I already wrote about my 11th grade English teacher, Mrs Olic-Hamilton.  She made us write and write, and we flew through a novel every couple of weeks.  She sent me home with her type writer so I could type my essays. I was way into that class.  Part way through the year she pulled me aside after class and asked me if I could do her a favor.  I was eager to help.  She asked if maybe I could wait to make comments in class until she called on me, that she appreciated that I had such "insightful" opinions, but that it would really help my fellow students if I would keep quiet most classes.  She promised me that if I waited for "especially tricky discussion points," she would call on me for "my insightful ideas."  I ate that stuff up, because I was also an insufferable know-it-all.

In college, my favorite class was Genetics taught by a graduate student (Polly Randall), while the professor was on leave.  It was such a great class.  Before each class I read all the chapters, did the homework, and came eager for the lecture.  Leila and I were in a study group together for the class. We usually sat together.  She used to wack me on leg and shoot me dirty looks during class because, and this is embarrassingly bad behavior, I would answer questions from students before Polly had a chance to.  That and I would roll my eyes and sigh when people had dumb questions.  Because I was also an impatient and annoying know-it-all.  

There are many other examples, but mostly as a grown up I try not to be an obnoxious know-it-all, but to leverage it to be a successful researcher and scientific leader in my very small and narrow field.  

Regarding religion, I did serve a mission for the LDS church and taught people that it was the one and only true religion on the face of the earth.  I had prayed about this and it felt . . OK.  I can't say I was totally sure even then, and I struggled to find where I believed.  I wanted to know.  

Sometimes I felt like I did.  And other times I certainly did not.  I almost didn't serve a mission.  I was at BYU and that seemed like the thing to do so I put in my papers. When you got your mission assignment and call in those days you were supposed to send back an acceptance letter.  I wrote mine declining the mission call, because I wasn't sure I was sure enough.  I didn't have the guts to actually mail it in though.  It sat in my backpack in the folder with my notes for a week or two.  One night my orchestra gave a fund raising concert for the BYU foundation and Pres. Hinckley was the keynote speaker.  I sat behind him with the letter like the telltale heart beating loud in my mind all night.  I felt so strongly that if he was a prophet, and he had called me on a mission, that I should go.  So after the concert I rewrote my letter and I went.  

I got to Nicaragua and dove into learning the language and teaching.  My mission was hard in lots of ways - I was sick a lot from parasites, living conditions were sometimes primitive, and there was always danger from crime and plenty of other risks from a country that was just getting on its feet after years of civil war and strife.  For example, the tallest building in Nicaragua then was a rather short skyscraper that was still broken and empty after the earthquake in the 1970's.  We didn't always have electricity or running water.  I was robbed multiple times, saw a lot of protests, and sometimes had to walk because the roads were blockaded.  But, we never lacked people to teach.  We were welcomed into people's homes and they were eager to learn about our religion.  Many did join. I loved teaching and felt like it was the right place for me to be, but even then there were questions and doubts that I had and set aside.  I saw the church grow from just a few members to be ready to have stakes in the short two years I was there. 

Then I came home, back to BYU, met Leila in that fateful genetics class, and flew through school.  I got a masters at BYU, then a PhD at TAMU. We had five daughters and one son stillborn and buried in Bryan, TX.  That was a low point in my faith.  I took that really hard.  My journal is silent though.  I didn't write.  I don't even have super clear memory of that time, but my memory of the feeling of the time is one of anger, bitterness, and not really finding comfort in my religion.  My bishop at the time made come comment about he knew that our son was in a better place and that he knew that we would see him again.  And if there was one thing I knew at that time it was that I didn't know that.  I felt like I had lost and I didn't feel the comfort of faith - the surety of knowing that there would be a second chance. 

But, life keeps churning and somehow I am now 43, and pretty sure that I don't know what I thought I knew about many things.  I look at my personal history and my church's history and there are many things that I find faith in, but then other things that are jarring.  I have doubts or problems with pretty much all of the LDS church essay problems: polygamy, the Church's racist past, Book of Mormon historical evidence, Book of Abraham translation and others like LDS 100+ billion dollar endowment or the church's LGBT policies or the crazy Adam-god stuff Brigham Young used to teach.  It shakes me.  I don't know today with the surety that I seemed to have when I was a 19 year old missionary.  I read some of my journal entries from those years and I was so sure of so much.  I have wanted to know with that kind of surety again, and I have felt guilty for doubting - for not doubting my doubts. 

I guess where I am now, after living with that guilt for a couple of years, is to let that guilt go. I can remember the sense of relief when I came to the simple conclusion that I didn't have to squeeze my beliefs into the box I felt like the Church had given me.   Maybe, it was OK not to know, or agree. Maybe not believing, was OK and I didn't have to doubt my doubts to have my faith. Though the consequence would be that accepting my beliefs that didn't fit in that box and not ignoring that or feeling like I should force them to. And I am beginning to feel like that is the right thing. It means I can disagree with the Church's stance or policies or doctrines.  I get to decide what I believe is true.  

Some of my doubts aren't really doubts even.  They are beliefs in themselves - like evolution.  For example, I don't really have doubts about Adam and Eve or Noah being real people, I am pretty sure that they were not.  That as myth there is meaning there, I believe, but I don't know if it is the same one I once thought it was.  Evidence shows that the earth is old, that plants and animals evolved over time, and that protohumans evolved in Africa and then spread throughout the world.  I don't know for sure, but that is what makes the most sense with what I know now. 

In true Know-it-all anonymous fashion, I am not sure where this will lead, but I think it is better to not know it all, than to be a know-it-all.  

Explaining the Pandemic to my Past Self Part 2

Parasites, cholera, dengue fever, and Covid19

The other thing I keep thinking about with Covid19 is my mission in Nicaragua.I had a great mission.  It was fun, it was life changing.  I made friendships that changed my life in so many ways.  I lived in Nicaragua from 1996 to 1998. the economy was still a mess and the church was really new.  We had a short period where we had to stay home and not go out because of unrest around the elections in our area, but mostly I think about how disease impacted me personally and the economy.

I was sick most of my mission.  I had diarrhea from intestinal parasites, E. coli, Giardia,  or food poisoning pretty much the entire time. The lowest moment was when I was in Grenada about half way through and it was really hard. I was also leading the mission district, the church district and the branch. We had almost no local leaders - the district president had used all of his budget to help a family whose son committed suicide and then tried to cover for that by using all of the budget from the branches, and then tried to cover that up and made such a mess. One of branch presidents confessed to me that he had an affair and that she was pregnant. Another had invested the budget to keep it out of the district presidents hands into the local farm coop, which went bankrupt.  His daughter was also either possessed or severely mentally ill. He was probably mentally ill. His whole family had a history of violence and hechizeria. That is a long story in itself. We ended up releasing all of them and calling all new leaders and I was stuck with the job of finding those new leaders. 

The other missionaries just added to my stress. Elder Hernandez, a missionary in my district, hated me and tried his best to make me look bad and to make my life miserable. One of the missionaries that I lived with tried to kill himself and then ran away to Honduras. All of that on top of being so sick. I was losing weight. I had a cough that wouldn't go away, diarrhea, a skin rash, and a fever that simmered and kept me awake at night.  My companions during this time were pretty good, but between my health and the stress I was breaking. I wasn't sleeping and physically I was falling apart. At the worst point, I dropped to almost 110 lbs and must have looked like I was dying. The mission president's wife saw us while she was driving to Managua, pulled over, ordered us into the car and drove me straight to the hospital.  At the hospital the doctor checked my symptoms - fungal infection on my skin, in my lungs, parasites, bacterial and amoeba infections, and losing weight. Plus on top of that I had gotten this terrible, terrible haircut so I looked like Tom Hanks from the end of Philadelphia. He came to the only logical conclusion - I must have HIV.  I did not have HIV.  He checked. But, I did get medicine for all of the things, and orders to stay at the mission home until I had gained some weight and got some help dealing with all of the mess in my area.  

I did get better, but we were usually dealing with one of us being sick - sometimes with malaria, dengue fever, but mostly intestinal problems from bad water or food. We worked at hospitals as volunteers and saw a lot of really sick people. One of my areas was hit pretty hard with cholera.  The water system was a mess and so we only had running water a few hours at a time.  Many people used river water or contaminated well water. The river in Matagalpa was bad enough that all the fish died while I was there and I can remember watching them float on the top of the water from a bridge while sipping fresco de malacuya.  Dengue or malaria was a problem for us and the people in Nicaragua.  I never got either, but some of my companions did. I did have a fever once so high that I began to hallucinate - seeing ants crawling all over people and things around me. I still have health impacts from that time. I have serious liver damage, possibly started from either the diseases or treatments that I had during those years.  

What does this have to do with Covid19 and our current quarantine conditions? 

It was the first time that I lived with pretty real risk of getting sick from serious diseases.  It was also clear how overwhelmed the health care system was. For the first six months of my mission we volunteered in the hospital in Leon most mornings. All the beds were full - sometimes with two people/bed. The hospital didn't have enough supplies or medicines.  Patients had to bring their own medicines most of the time. The Russian equipment was old and not always functional. They only had one set of electrodes for the EKG machine. That we were even allowed to work as nurses, orderlies, record keepers, etc with no training really showed how desperate they were for help.  Most of the time we did intake, helped set bones, moved patients around between departments, helped with minor surgeries, cleaned up after patients and treatments, ran errands for the doctors or nurses, and whatever else was needed.

 The impact of having these diseases was a drag on the economy as well as the physical health of people.  Nicaragua's economy was the worst in the Americas with high unemployment, educational problems, system corruption, a weak and unreliable democracy, but having a pretty high rate of malaria, dengue, cholera, yellow fever, parasites, poor water, etc. made it worse.  I think another impact of disease was more subtle. Just knowing that there was this risk changes behavior of people and investments. If you know that to go to Nicaragua you are encouraged/required to get a whole list of vaccines and potentially take medicine to prevent malaria, treat all liquids consumed as potentially contaminated and that food wasn't safe to eat, you might reconsider visiting Nicaragua.  You may choose to go to Costa Rica instead. You would stay in different hotels and eat different food.  You might not do business there or send your kids to study there.  

Covid19 quarantines are obviously hurting businesses and people that have lost their jobs. So many are closed and so many people unemployed, but I think some of the other impacts to the economy are because of the psychological impacts of people being scared - of the disease, of other people, of the government, etc.  Scared people are not rational and that encourages conspiracy theories. I think that is why Facebook is flooded right now with Plandemic and other nutjob videos. It is fear that is behind the protests where people bring their guns to the capital. Rational people can have a discussion and disagree amicably.  We aren't there right now and that is scary.  Nicaragua was that way too. Everyone polarized and tons of absurd rumors spreading that encouraged people to vote for strongmen like Daniel Ortega. Scared people don't want democracy - they want someone strong and are susceptible to extremism.  

The uncertainty also hurts the economy.  I feel this in my own life.  I want to plan summer vacation and activities, but I can't because I don't know what summer will be like.  Will we have the pool open? Will church open? Will I travel for work? I don't know.  I feel this at work.  Projects that require travel or international recruiting or investment - at a standstill.  Reduced capacity for lab and field work.  Prices dropping for corn, soy, meat. Animal production reducing herds and flocks. You can't invest confidently without the ability to make a plan and expect those plans to happen.  Nicaragua was full of this.  I understand now better people's unwillingness to make plans.  You just can't when so many things are out of your control.

There are some interesting differences.  Most of the diseases that we worried about were spread by a vector that we couldn't shut ourselves away from.  Mosquitoes were everywhere and we had mosquito nets and bug repellent, but they will bite you.  You can't hide from them completely and they spread many of the diseases - Malaria, dengue, now also Zika.  The water carried E. coli, amoebas, giardia. The food carried hepatitus, parasites, and bacterial food poisoning.  This disease is really carried by us. We are the vector.  We are the host and the carrier.  Quarantine and lockdowns does prevent infection and spread, where most of our diseases in Nicaragua we worried about were not something we could shut ourselves away from.  We could avoid eating street food, but we couldn't avoid eating and drinking entirely, and after a few weeks it was clear that no food was really safe, so I ate street food indiscriminately.  As annoying and potentially detrimental global shutdowns, travel restrictions, and quarantines are they do slow or prevent the spread of this virus.  

At some point we will have to figure out how to live with this disease.  The lockdowns will have to end and my guess is that the disease will not disappear. We will have to figure out how we can better test for, treat, and live with Covid19 like we live with other diseases.  Hopefully there will be a vaccine developed that will prevent infection.  Vaccines are a miracle.  When I worked in the hospital and saw measles, mumps, rubella, tetanus, diptheria, hepatitus, etc in real life, it really cemented how amazing vaccines are.  I hope one of the long term impacts of Covid19 is the end of the antivax movement.  But, even with a vaccine, we will need to learn to live with that risk and to face those fears.  Nicaraguans lived with a lot of fear every day - the economy, disease, crime - all worse than now, but still bravely and almost everyone we met were happy and worked so hard taking care of each other.  Besides a vaccine, that I think is the solution - we can combat fear through action. I don't mean arming yourself with a stupid gun.  Action - look for people that are hurting and help them.  Chose to live bravely in face of fear.

Chile Earthquake and COVID-19

By Esteban Maldonado from Santiago, Chile - Terremoto
27-FEB-2010 Vespucio Norte 23,
CC BY-SA 2.0,

I was in Chile in 2010 to look at corn plots in Rancagua. In the middle of the night my room started to shake - but it was slow and at first I thought, "what are the people next to me doing?" Then it sped up and got strong enough that I could hear glass breaking, ceiling tiles falling down. The mini-fridge pulled away from the wall and walked across the ground. I sat in the doorway of the bathroom while the water splashed out of the toilet and thought - I could really die.

Then, spent the rest of the week worrying about how we were going to get home and looking at corn plots. Restaurants were closed, gas was rationed, power was out, cell service was poor or nonexistent, the airport was closed, and there was some real damage - old buildings downtown, some of the older bridges and overpasses, a huge storage tank of wine broke near the farm spilling thousands of gallons of red wine. People died.

There was a surreal moment when we were driving and there was a film crew along the side of the bridge filming the collapsed older bridge next us. That is the image that was shown on TV - not the new bridge engineered to withstand a 9 point earthquake. It would have been a better story to me to show both bridges - one made to withstand the stress and one that did not. Buildings like my hotel were built with earthquake dampening features that made them safe even with strong stress.

The coverage of covid19 reminds me of that. It was both true that the earthquake had big damaging effects, and that the country was resilient and prepared. Both things were true. The same here. We can withstand this, but only if we take in that whole picture. I was really impressed with how the Chileans I worked with dealt with the aftershocks and the aftermath of the earthquake. They helped each other, they cleaned up, they waited in line, they rebuilt with stronger and better bridges. They didn't freak out. They knew this was a risk and knew that it probably would happen again.

We can do the same here. Quarantine will end, the disease will probably come back or there will be a different one. How do we look around - see who needs our help and what institutions need to be rebuilt on a better foundation? If we do that, then we will be prepared. I have seen a number of posts on all sides about how wrong the quarantine is or how the federal government screwed this up or that. In reality - we need to keep track of what we did wrong or right, but it doesn't do any good to be angry about it. Of course we didn't handle this right. No one involved really has done this before. What I am most interested in is how do we clean up from this mess and then get ready for next time.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_Chile_earthquake