Negative Space

That could be a title for my day as well as for the picture of the tree at the top of our field. It's a California Live Oak. It's a bit singed at the bottom but still makes a nice sentry when we look up toward the road from our garden.

I was visiting with a neighbor the other day and we were bemoaning the state of the world. She said, 'It's all awful and there is nothing I can do about most of it, so I'm just trying to get on with my life as best I can....'
It's pretty sane when you consider the fact that on a micro scale and on a day to day basis, we have a pretty good life.

There was a long article in the paper about Covid today (as there is just about every day). After many paragraphs about how complicated it all is it detailed the story of one unvaccinated elementary school teacher who started feeling sick, but powered through the rest of her day despite it. She took off her mask for a few minutes so she could read to the children. Within 48 hours she had tested positive as had 12 of her students who were all too young to get a vaccination. The story went on to follow the contact tracing and the progress as the virus made its way through families, teammates and friends. There were conclusions about the increased rate of infectiousness and speculations about models predicting that within a few months 75% of the school would have become sick. 'It wasn't the teacher's fault', said a county health officer.

I'm sorry. I don't think there is anything that complicated about it, and I think it was indeed that teacher's fault for not being vaccinated. The parents were said to be confused and worried about how to protect their children. I think they should be angry that there isn't a vaccine mandate for all teachers.

The way this virus morphs and mutates is confusing, even frightening, but ways to protect ourselves from it have been proven to work. If everybody had gotten vaccinated as soon as vaccines became available to them, I don't think we would be seeing this mutated Delta variant. 

The thing that makes it complicated is the fact that it is a global pandemic and many countries do not have access to the vaccine. 
Like my neighbor, I have done what I can do.