As Sonny and Cher so nobly put it, “The Beat Goes On.” Or maybe the “beast” goes on. I suspect we need to accept the fact that our lives are changing for the foreseeable future. It might become the year of Amazon, Zoom, takeout food or other similar products and services not requiring on-site personal involvement.
We try to stay connected in various ways. As the CFO at the Printery in Port Townsend, I head up there a couple of times per week to stay in touch with the business. I have been working particularly hard understanding the Printery’s eligibility for the one or more of the federal, state and local programs available to support the business and the folks we work with. The Business Guides in Port Townsend conducts a weekly Zoom meeting on Friday afternoons providing up-to-date, yet changing, information on the programs and the local business people who can help.
Last week it was Carolyn Pedersen of Full Circle HR and Kristin Manwaring of KMI Insurance helping out with crucial information. If you want in these sessions contact Shelly Randall at the Business Guides and she can help you.
BJ and I are trying to take a walk every day and have been somewhat successful, although we tend to go not as far as we have in the past. We recently encountered Tim and Katie Jablonski on the road and caught up a little. She was excited their son had come to visit, and he related his exploits skiing until the ski areas shut down. The next day we saw Diane Neesz who talked about the Hallmark greeting cards she was able to procure from their website. It is always fun to meet up with Jim Brannaman too.
We enjoyed another “cocktail” party with Steve/Fran Gross and Vic/Sharon Draper, this time up at the Gross’. (“GrossPoint” if you haven’t already seen the marker on the driveway.) Sitting outside in the warm late afternoon sun enjoying a little fellowship is certainly preferable to getting together over Zoom, although Zoom is preferable to nothing at all. Actually, catching up with old friends/family over Zoom is pretty fun and as I indicated earlier, that activity might be a much bigger part of our lives going forward.
Michael Carroll is a talented local piano player up on the hill in north Port Ludlow. Each afternoon about 4 p.m., he opens the windows in the room holding his piano and plays for the assembled neighbors for 15-20 minutes. Yep, it is very cool.
My Rotary friend, Meredith Green, is the treasurer of Kitsap County. At a recent meeting, via Zoom, she provided the following timely anonymous poem:
“When you go out and see the empty streets, the empty stadiums, the empty train platforms, don’t say to yourself, “it looks like the end of the world.” What you are seeing is love in action.
What you’re seeing in that negative space is how much we do care for each other, for our grandparents, for our immune- compromised brothers and sisters, for people we will never meet.
People will lose their jobs over this, some will lose their businesses, and some will lose their lives.
All the more reason to take a moment when you’re out on your walk, or on your way to the store, or just watching the news, to look into the emptiness and marvel at all that love.
Let it fill you and sustain you.
It is not the end of the world, it is the most remarkable act of global solidarity we may ever witness.”
~
Love a curmudgeon while staying home, and have a great week!
(Ned Luce is a retired IBM executive who loves all things Ludlow.)
