Sunday, September 20
We lost Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on Friday, Sept. 18. This in itself was terrible, but it also unleashed further divide in the country with the Republicans pushing to get a new judge into the Supreme Court before the election. So, of course, we started with this. The unease and sense of dread among us was apparent. We had a practicing attorney on the Zoom who works on human rights cases. She expressed her deep concern over our country’s immediate future, why we weren’t doing more to preserve our safety and democracy. We heard from her how the courts just recently opened having been closed during the quarantine and how backed up they are, and how filing online is challenging and slow, and how the courts are trying to include virtual conferences and hearings. We talked about how the being in the court buildings is arguably dangerous for the workers, three New York judges died of COVID and more than 100 people who worked in the courts came down with the virus. We talked about the more than 60 rabbis who died, and even more pastors and priests, and how we crossed the 200,000 mark for US deaths. It was a dark start to the call, though that was warranted.
Then we lightened up a bit. The weekend was the Jewish holiday of Rosh Hashana, so we talked about our celebrations in these strange times, some watched virtual services, some had real life visits and dinners, and some let it pass this year. We talked about how beautiful it is on the East End beaches now, and how one of us enjoyed a Jewish ceremony of “tashlich” where you throw bread crumbs into water as a symbol of throwing your sins away, and how this turned into a seagull free-for-all as the birds swooped in to enjoy the crumbs before the ocean claimed them. We wondered about RBG’s burial since her death happened on a holiday and the Sabbath and whether they would choose a religious or State ceremony. Somehow we moved from funerals to circumcision, and, with a doctor on the call, we could discuss details otherwise not available. We then talked about puppies, fun bouncy puppies, and how there seem to be so many of them now in our neighborhoods. People must be grabbing them up for company in lonely apartments for fear of future quarantine at worst, and maybe further remote working and learning at best. We talked about buying dogs, how one of us hoped to herself. And then we talked about spotting whales off the beach, as they seem to be appearing more frequently. Our Hamptons resident explained this is because they have more fish available to them since laws now prohibit overfishing the whales’ favorites. She also told us a great story of swimming with whales, which she got to do in French Polynesia. The huge animals are aware of the people swimming among them and do their best to not crush them. Another told a story of watching killer whales off a boat and the magnificence of seeing the pod jump in unison. We looked up the odd instance where a Sea World trainer was killed by an orca, apparently by mistake, it had been intrigued by her pony tail and jumped at it, and unfortunately, her. And then we circled back to the Notorious RBG and ended in time so those of us who wanted could catch the specially re-broadcast CNN documentary about her tremendous life.
Wednesday, Sept 23, 2020
We hit the Fall Equinox Sept 22, crossing into the third season of this pandemic inspired endeavor. We began our typically meandering chat with a short discussion about how this time has been hitting us. Thankfully, we’re mostly all okay. But many of us are having trouble getting stuff done, even the littlest things, with many of us reporting a weird combination of ennui and stress. We talked about making lists for ourselves which might help productivity, or might create guilt for not accomplishing the listed necessities, and about Zoom fatigue. Then we worried about the upcoming election and the issues with the Electoral College. One of us needs to renew her passport and she’s worried about the complications involved considering the slower post office and inability to apply in person now. We talked about the hazards of flying, even masked, and about the necessity of a flu shot now, and who among our friends had had COVID. We wondered about eating out and wearing coats under the tents between the plexiglass walls, maybe with heat lamps, with many of us still preferring to eat outside rather than inside, though it will soon be permitted. We noticed the weather was cooling and the humidity lower and how some of our allergies were acting up. We talked about our birthdays and the pubs and bars where we used to celebrate with big lists of guests and the welcomed crashers. We talked about writing postcards to get the vote out and how the maskless rallies were frightening. We talked again about the rise in crime in the city, and how the Broken Windows policy which though a bit harsh made sense, so volunteer crews in the city have taken upon themselves to clean up the garbage in our neighborhoods to encourage better behavior. We acknowledged among ourselves that we in NY are not anarchists as we’re accused, we want our neighborhoods to be safe and nice and we’re keeping COVID down as a whole, glaring, and being glared at if maskless in the streets. We talked about Duke and basketball and the tallest people we’ve known, and dated. We women among us wandered into talking about men with beards, and dating them. All the dating talk motivated a gent to actively return the conversation to the more benign topic of flu shots. We then talked about random ailments, one of us has a “boot” on her leg for a sprained foot and someone else is wrestling with tennis elbow for all the socially distanced tennis she’s playing. We talked about election signs on lawns and those of us currently in the suburbs piped in about their experience of this in their neighborhoods. We talked about historical political leanings in other countries, the fear of the Left among Venezuelans and Cubans because of their experience with Communism, what are the differences between Socialism and Communism and Fascism, and also Royalists, like among the Greeks. We talked a bit more about Greece, as one of us has intimate knowledge of of the country, and of their education, which is more rigorous, and only a few can qualify for university, the others have to go to vocational school, and we discussed the merits of this (the Greeks refer to some of our more accessible universities as “monkey college” which I thought was hysterical). Apparently there is also a Palm Tree Plague in Greece caused by a bug that came over from Africa. We talked about the upcoming presidential debate and which candidate was taller (Trump is, though Biden looks taller we decided). We talked about some non-fiction to read as one of us needs an idea for her online book club. Someone recommended “Yes, Chef” about about Marcus Samuelsson. I shared that I had enjoyed a course by him specially prepared for a charity dinner at the Harlem JCC, and the speech he gave at the event, as well as a meals many of us were lucky to enjoy at Acquavit and more recently at Red Rooster. And, we ended discussing Elijah Cummings’s timely book “We Are Better Than This.”
