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We Have Each Other!
Extended isolation is killing us, physically and emotionally. Suicides, drug overdoses, and untended health problems are deadly outcomes during this virus pandemic. But I’m here with positive news and a way for us to remind each other that we are in this together. Rather than dwell on what we can’t do, I’m choosing to focus on what we can do.
I’ve finally realized that the most important thing for me to do is to reduce my isolation! It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure that out. Here are some of the steps I’m going to take:
- Connect with one friend per day. That means I will make a phone call or send a personal note. Now I dislike talking on the phone, but if I keep it to a few minutes, it will be worth it. Hearing the other person’s voice, finding something to laugh at (I usually make an easy victim), or telling a story will lighten my load. Since I know others are busy, I will first ask if they have a couple of minutes, and then say I won’t be long. I could call people all over the country that I haven’t talked to in ages. It would be fun to catch up, and share our lives. I’m feeling better just talking about it!
- I will send an email just to say I’m thinking of that person. Remind him or her of a memory we shared or a joke I’ve heard. (Well, maybe not a joke because I’m terrible at punch lines.) I would make a point to only include funny, light, or heartfelt comments. It shouldn’t be a long email, but just a way to make a sweet connection.
- Before the virus, I was in the process of organizing a Jewish group. It was called Teshuvah, and after our first meeting, the virus hit. I’ve only rarely been in touch since we can’t get together. We were going to meet with an agenda to become better acquainted with the Jewish holidays. Instead, for each holiday I will send out a blurb, maybe call it, “Did You Know,” with something unlikely to be known about the holiday, maybe include a quote from a well-known Jewish teacher. It will keep the connections going and maybe add a few new people. I could do this every couple of weeks.
But I realize that I also have relationships with like-minded Conservative people all over the country! I have all of you, my Ricochet friends! I would like to think of these relationships as a Web of Friendship, may be present in every state of the Union. I will want to know that I have engaged, sustained, and continually supported all of you, even after the election, no matter what happens. So here’s my proposal:
I’d love to hear where everyone lives! You only need to share your state and include a word of support for every Ricochetti. No cost, no obligation.
I’ll start it out: I live in Central Florida, and my message to all of you is that I have your back no matter what the election outcome is. We’re in this together!
Does anyone else want to chime in?
Published in Culture
I live in Gainesville, GA, although we’re on our way (time not set) to Black Mountain, NC. And, I have the backs of all my fellow Ricochet members.
And, work on your Teshuvah!
I’m moving at the end of the week back to the Peoples Republic of Illinois.
Thanks, @johnpark! It’s long overdue!
Oh, gee, good luck with that. New job?
Actually, I realize I know where a lot of you live! Heh, heh. But not everyone else does, so to form the Web in our minds, that’ll be helpful. Maybe I’ll do a stick-pin map and send it to all of you afterward.
Not yet.
Overland Park, Kansas -Kansas City metro.
Up here in Massachusetts. Keep the faith everyone, whatever your faith may be.
Based on the picture, I was hoping alcohol would be involved in this initiative some how?
Follow my blog at RushBabe49.com. Comment on my posts to start a conversation. I think I will post Yad Vashem stories of Jews from the Holocaust from time to time. My latest post is a “photo challenge” that might interest you.
I am already in conversation with friends from my old job. You can register by scrolling down on the left sidebar for the link.
Works for me, @jclimacus! Although I’m a cheap drunk–one glass and I’m done!
[Edited. Not the place for whining.
Note to self: Finish reading posts before commenting.]
??
Crushing morosity (as JPod would say).
Central Ohio.
Life goes on, and whatever the setbacks of the hour, GD has the final say and wins in the end.
Ah, c’mon, @christopherriley. Won’t you let us help? You’re too young to let this stuff get to you. And too many of us will be concerned if you do!
Works for me, @skipsul!
It’s getting to me because I’m young.
We all have a narrow window of opportunity to build a life for ourselves. COVID, economic collapse, civil war, atomized modern society — all these things slam that window shut. Not what I bargained for!
It has to be incredibly frustrating!! I can’t imagine feeling I’m on the precipice and ready to soar–and then a long-term blizzard locks me in. It reminds me of the time I finally had the courage to leave Zen Buddhism. Door after door kept slamming shut, one after another, and I finally gave up. It wasn’t the place I was supposed to be. And then the door to Judaism cracked open–and then burst wide open. And the rest is history.
You are a very talented fellow. Just be sure to keep your eyes open through your morosity.
Well, keep the faith. My dad lost everything – his chosen profession, all of his land, and his savings – in his 40s. Yet now he’s happily retired and doing well financially.
I flunked out of school, was in my mid 30s making mid 30s (and in tech!) but now make almost $100,000 a year in my mid 40s.
Think of all the people who went through World War II and had to completely rebuild after.
Or the people who came to America in boats from Cuba. Or Vietnam.
So things can look really dark, and having pessimism as my vocation I can really understand that view, but if we give up that’s the way it will stay. It’s only by continuing to push forward as best we can that the light can dawn again and those windows reopen.
Nice try, Fed! (I kid!)
I live in the Piedmont of North Carolina, close to the border with South Carolina.
Go find a teaching job at Classical charter school through your alma mater. They are desperate for teachers.
I live in Southwest PA, about eight miles west of the town known to the locals as “Little Worshington.” (Known that way so that no-one mistakes it for the national capital.) In fact, Byron York wrote about exactly where I live, just the other day, in the Worshington (the big one) Examiner, in his piece The Big Trump Rallies You Don’t See. He’s talking about an area of the country, and its people, and my neighbors, that I love.
Claysville (the closest little town to me) was known as “Little Richmond” during the Civil War for its support of the Confederacy. (Richmond, VA was the Confederate capital for most of the war.) West Alexander, a few miles down the National Road (Rte 40) was a stop on the Underground Railroad. Those old divisions still cut deep around here. But today, we’re all frackers, and the paucity of Biden/Harris signs is notable. TRUMP! signs are everywhere (one place, about a mile and a half from me, has about 20 facing the road). Many houses are adorned with huge banners and flags. And Saturday, I saw something I’d never seen before–one of those light show things people use to put Christmas images on their homes, except it was an image of Trump.
I’ll have been on Ricochet for an entire decade of my life on December 10 of this year. My membership here has been one of the most rewarding endeavors of my life. As with everything, there are moments of my Ricochet experience on which, as Queen Elizabeth said about her annus horribilis in 1997, “I shall not look back with undiluted pleasure” (bless!), but in the main, I love you all.
As for my message, I wrote a post four years ago on which I think I can’t improve. It was about the life and death of my stepson Michael, whose fifty-third birthday would have been on November 4, 2020. November 4 was a few days before the 2016 election and will be the day after the 2020 election, and my 2016 post was part of the month’s group writing topic of “gratitude.”
I ended it with the letter Michael wrote to President Bush a couple of days after 9/11/2001:
and with the words
Yes. We have each other. And that’s not nothing.
True, but in times like this it’s hard to remember that. I need to keep reminding myself of that, instead of jumping in feet-first.
Would you rather have been born into ancient Babylon or an Ice Age? Europe in 1315? You will handle this well.
Get together a mini- meetup with Ricochetti in your area. I will be doing a post in the Pacific Northwest Ricochetti group, and on the Meetup thread when I get home from work. Everyone is also invited to our chili party on December 5.
Indeed. Thank you, She for your beautiful contribution.
I’m an unnatural (to borrow a term from the great, erstwhile Midget Faded Rattlesnake), so, in Babylon or Ice-Age Europe, it’s likely that I wouldn’t have been born at all.
Ah, Washington County! The most Scots-Irish place in the country.