Coronavirus cases have risen to their highest level since April in my home state of Michigan.

This is also true in the state of Illinois, where my youngest daughter and my son, his wife, and our two-month-old grandson live.

The dreaded second wave of Covid is here in most of the United States, with cases averaging 60,000 a day and around 800-1000 deaths per day. Doctors and scientists are predicting that this will only get worse in the coming cold of winter.

Our president keeps saying we’re “around the corner” and that “the Chinese virus” will soon end as we get near “herd immunity.” About 40% of the country seem to agree with him and many of them don’t believe in wearing masks.

Recently, a Michigan woman was discharged after 196 days in the University of Michigan hospital. Her family had said goodbye to her three times in the last few months but she finally left the hospital, her life “forever changed.”

My family is living with this virus as well as we can, trying to be safe and smart and not overwhelmed with despair or constant fear. It’s getting harder and harder to negotiate between fear, anger, sadness, and the occasional bouts of hope for an election and the possibility that our emotional roller coaster will end.

I work daily and stay in my office, hiding away from anyone who might be pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic. It’s not a good way to live but it’s the best way to stay safe and right now, that is more important that what our president calls “freedom.”

I fear the fall and winter and the nature of our dangerously divided country, half the country angry and not trusting the other half. But it’s pointless to live in fear and the state of the politics of our country is not something I can control.

I will stay smart and cautious but I will not dwell in fear and anger.

I must stay calm and hopeful and believe that most of us will survive and live through this.

I pray that in the year of 2021, our collective physical and mental health will get better and we can look back at this time as a period of struggle and pain that did not last.

What else can we do?

Arnie

A Moodscope Member