I really didn’t want to watch the HBO series Chernobyl. It was hard to imagine a more bleak subject matter. However, I can report, it didn’t disappoint. Not in the bleakness factor, nor in the rendering of the tale.
There was superb acting. Riveting drama. Some eye opening historical nuggets. Echoes of our current predicament. The usual follies of humankind.
Not long afterwards I saw a post about the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone thirty years after the meltdown of the nuclear reactor. Apparently, those thousand square miles are teeming with wildlife now that the number of humans has been drastically reduced. Believe it or not, there are still tourists, there are scientists, there are even a couple of hundred residents who had no where else to go. There’s even one lone bar.
But, in the virtual absence of humankind, the animals are thriving.
The same phenomena is happening all over the world due to the pandemic.
Wild boars roam the downtown streets of Barcelona. Lions stretch out on deserted roads in Africa catching siestas while the roads are empty. Bears are congregating in Yosemite Valley now that the park is closed and, according to rangers, practically throwing parties every night. Mountain goats drawn to the healthy greenery of public parks and residences have ventured into a town in Wales. Macaque monkeys are running wild in Thailand annoyed that there are no longer throngs of tourists to feed them.
China has, unfortunately, begun to reopen their ‘wet markets’ where it is believed the whole thing got started when the novel coronavirus “jumped” from an animal species (most likely a bat) to a human. But, in America, our own ‘wet markets’, also known as meat packing plants, are proving to be problematic when it comes to social distancing and the virus is running rampant in some of them.
Almost all of South Dakota’s COVID19 cases are related to a single meat processing facility. But South Dakota is not alone in these outbreaks.
I have not seen any data on the subject but I would not be surprised if the consumption of meat products has dropped. Bill Maher offered a scathing monologue that targeted both meat factories and the notoriously awful Tiger King series. I agree with him 100 per cent on animal cruelty being the source of many of our societal ills. (In my opinion, animal abuse should preclude you from ever exercising your Second Amendment rights. I think that would solve a number of problems. But I digress.)
The law of unintended consequences is unfolding before our eyes.
People aren’t driving as much. Hence, the skies are clearer. Pollution has lessened. I won’t be surprised to learn the residents of LA have taken up stargazing.
We can’t gather at our usual watering holes, so we are getting creative. More and more so by the day. There are lots of favorite examples but the one that comes to mind most readily is the family posting family portraits with everyone wearing the same primary color with a multitude of whimsical props in the same primary color.
Where safety nets are failing us, people are stepping into the breach.
Chefs like Jose Andres and Guy Fieri and local restaurant entrepreneurs, who are capable of helping, are feeding as many people as humanly possible. Little Free Pantries, based on the same idea as the Little Free Libraries, have sprung up around Seattle bankrolled by Seattle chef Molly Harmon.
The other day, I saw someone on Twitter post they would pay unpaid bills for as many people as possible. All a person had to do was direct message their bill amount and their Venmo handle to author, Shea Serrano. Mr. Serrano went on to raise over a $100,000 for the San Antonio Food Bank in a separate show of goodwill toward humankind.
People are reaching out more than ever with Zoom, FaceTime and their favorite social media platform. I was never a fan of those mediums but any solution that helps keep us connected is a win in my book.
I’ve seen more than one article and I’ve had more than one friend state that the ‘slowing down of the world’ has had its pluses. That it hasn’t all been negative. Some wonder if we can bottle some of the magic that’s been inadvertently created. I wonder if - when the crisis part of the pandemic is over - the big tech firms in Seattle could continue working from home as much as possible to help unclog the traffic constipation.
We are being forced to rethink a few things. To stop and smell the roses for real. Reimagine how to engage with our families when we’re with them all the time and when we can’t be with them at all.
It’s not all doom and gloom.
Especially if you can picture those bears throwing a hootenanny in Yosemite Valley.
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I acknowledge this is easy for me to say from the comfort of my rambler miles and miles and miles away from all the places the virus is raging. Isolated as best I can. Washing my hands like a fiend.
Of course, there is nowhere the virus is not smoldering.
I acknowledge there are those who have friends or family members or acquaintances who have paid the ultimate price to the COVID19 pandemic and don’t see any good having come from this. My heartfelt condolences go out to them.
I acknowledge those like the nurses and doctors I know, the city workers I know, the Ralph’s wine steward I know who are all considered to be essential employees and, though they have the luxury of a stable income, they find themselves confronting this plague every day. Risking their lives and livelihoods.
May I never need to offer my condolences to them.