Happy St. Paddy’s Day! When I grew up in a household of
non-drinkers, my folks always greeted this holiday with bemusement and a bit of
scorn. This was in Massachusetts, where more than a fifth of the Commonwealth’s
population claims Irish descent. Of course, Yankees have their own peculiar holiday—Patriot’s
Day—but it involves dressing up in colonial garb and beating drums rather than
drinking. In other words, no ethnicity has a monopoly on behavior that may seem
silly to others.
According to news reports, there were very few green-painted
revelers in the Twin Cities out tonight. This is not surprising, as the
governor ordered bars and restaurants to close at 5 PM to enforce social distancing.
What is surprising is that the governor felt the need to issue this order because,
to paraphrase his words, “People are still congregating.”
Get a grip, folks. This is real. Even if you are young and
feel invincible, you can still unknowingly give the virus to the older people in your lives
and with potentially disastrous results. Today, nursing
homes, assisted living complexes, and rehab facilities are restricting visitors.
They don’t want to be the next Kirkland, Washington, where dozens of elderly nursing
home residents died because their pneumonia was thought to be a bad flu and
visitors were still permitted.
I no longer visit friends in such facilities. Instead, I call
folks, send notes, and generally try to be mindful about how isolated people could
feel without contact from the outside world. And I watch TV, in theory while
lifting weights and doing chair exercises, but also while napping. Can’t
imagine why I feel the need to sleep, since I am not doing much. Maybe it’s
boredom.
Today’s media dose included three episodes of Dirty Money, a
documentary series about scandals caused by outrageous greed. One involved the
Wells Fargo policy of cross-selling, which meant that customers wound up with accounts
they never requested, and bankers faced termination if they reported the egregious
sales quotas imposed on them.
Another episode of Dirty Money focused on the president’s son-in-law,
Jared Kushner. Like the president, Jared wanted to bust out of his
bridge-and-tunnel real estate business. He bought an aging skyscraper in Manhattan,
paying too much for it, and systematically milked tenants of other buildings to
make debt payments. When that was not enough, he fell into the arms of middle eastern
autocrats who were perfectly happy to help him out in return for access to the
current White House.
I also watched an episode about elder abuse, specifically
the guardianship laws that make it possible to legally separate vulnerable
adults from their money and resources. That came a little close to home, even
though I have most of my marbles.
No decluttering occurred today. Maybe it will happen tomorrow
because I have vowed to skip more episodes of Dirty Money. Too depressing in
this current climate.
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