Some People

March 29, 2020 5:38 PM

Some people aren’t on this list. Take heart: you are not the only person experiencing what you are going through. But be mindful: not everyone is having the same experience you are. Ultimately though, we are all in this together.
posted by Gorgik (22 comments total)

This is good. Thank you for sharing. I too will remember these things. We are all experiencing a great and terrible Event, and our ability to muster through will largely depend on our willingness to work together.

Stay safe out there my friends, and if you need a non-judgmental ear...feel free to send me a private message (seriously!).
posted by Doleful Creature at 5:51 PM on March 29, 2020

Too many of those resonated with me. Too many of them made me feel like I could never do enough to help.

Jesus was probably right about Matthew 19:21.
posted by Your Childhood Pet Rock at 5:51 PM on March 29, 2020 [7 favorites]

Jason has been posting really useful and thoughtful stuff since the pandemic began*. I've really appreciated it.

*And also for the last 20 years, but you know what I mean.
posted by gwint at 5:55 PM on March 29, 2020 [11 favorites]

I feel like "some people are horny" is an understatement based on social media.
posted by cortex at 6:03 PM on March 29, 2020 [7 favorites]

some animals are really enjoying this extra time with their humans and will miss it when it's over, but others weren't consulted.
posted by kliuless at 6:09 PM on March 29, 2020 [19 favorites]

Some people are having a hard time believing in the promise of tomorrow, because today is already too much to bear.
posted by Doleful Creature at 6:14 PM on March 29, 2020 [14 favorites]

Some people are at about 75% on this list.

That's right, I am unfit to be president. And also horny.
posted by Slarty Bartfast at 6:19 PM on March 29, 2020 [25 favorites]

Fwiw, some of the best life advice I ever got, from an early partner:

If you are so fucked you can't even think, or sleep, and don't know what to do, you can do this even while you're crying: clean the kitchen - even behind the appliances.

Thank you c.c. for this useful metaphor.
posted by j_curiouser at 6:23 PM on March 29, 2020 [38 favorites]

I found the Bon Appétit Test Kitchen is Cooking at Home video similarly therapeutic, seeing how that group of good people were variously affected and how they were adjusting in different ways.
posted by Tsuga at 6:30 PM on March 29, 2020 [12 favorites]

thanks j_curiouser because it's true. focus and occupied. purpose. Just wow to Kottkes piece. well done. honest.
posted by clavdivs at 6:35 PM on March 29, 2020 [1 favorite]

I hope that we remember this, in whatever afterwards we get.

There are a lot of people going through this without reliable safe shelter, without reliable meals, without reliable water, people who’ve been hungry, abused and ignored for a long, long time thinking oh, I get it. Now that you can hear those chambers spinning next to your ears, now that you really feel that muzzle on your own temple for once, now that you won’t get a pass for your wealth or race or gender, now suddenly we’re all in this together? Where were you last month, last year?

It sure sounds nice to say it like that, knowing it’s just words. Personally, I hope we can come out of this acting like we believe it, and acting on our belief in it, for a lot longer than the contingency in front of us. I know I sure feel like I haven’t done nearly enough.
posted by mhoye at 6:40 PM on March 29, 2020 [13 favorites]

I desperately want to hope that we will come out of this as a better, kinder society, but then I look at all the other disasters that haven't led to that and, so.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 7:33 PM on March 29, 2020 [12 favorites]

Great, thanks!
posted by blue shadows at 11:18 PM on March 29, 2020

I hope that we remember this, in whatever afterwards we get.

I've been hearing "we don't want people falling through the cracks" a lot on CBC the last few days, and it's started to strike me what a simultaneously shitty and sort of weirdly apt metaphor that is. I mean, wouldn't cracks have to be ridiculously massive and mostly ignored for people to fall through them? Absurd. However...

I'm clinging to the scant hope that this is a good whack with the empathy and perspective sticks for many, myself included.
posted by Jon Mitchell at 12:35 AM on March 30, 2020

I liked this because it encompasses, at once, the situation of those who find themselves in quite a pleasant state, those who are merely coming with boredom and anxiety and the people who's reality is absolutely brutal.

But the "us" here is all humanity - and people from other countries could add their own unique lines: the people in Iran poisoning themselves on methanol in the belief that it could be a cure, those in India or Africa who don't have access to running water, let alone soap...
posted by rongorongo at 3:21 AM on March 30, 2020 [5 favorites]

Some people aren't as lucky as I am but I'm still tired and wanting to scream all the time.
posted by Fizz at 6:07 AM on March 30, 2020 [7 favorites]

I live in (at least) two worlds. One is the corporate-iest of corporate America, where I have to listen to people talk about business continuity, the struggles to keep billing processes running, whatever else, and the worst part is listening to people regularly co-opt language used to describe the magnitude of this current crisis and use it to talk about server failures, or answering phones, or whatnot.

The other world is food banks and domestic violence advocacy and trying to figure out how not to be a shitty human during these times. Which was already a thing during this hellish administration, and more of the thing in the last few weeks.

For me, I liked this piece because it felt like a bridge between the (at least) two worlds I'm in, and the other worlds I'm not in.
posted by Gorgik at 7:38 AM on March 30, 2020 [5 favorites]

Some people will find others to blame, for all of it.
posted by gottabefunky at 9:34 AM on March 30, 2020

"Some people are unfit to be President."

Amen to that!

But also, thanks for posting this. I wish the entire country would read it and try to have some compassion for those whose experience of this tragic/historic event is different from their own.
posted by WalkerWestridge at 2:48 PM on March 30, 2020 [2 favorites]

I cannot be Captain President, for you see, dear friends, I am unfit to lead other men into battle, into space, or in a line dance. I submit that if I picked my nose for a half an hour, my head would cave in. I am nary to know the distinction betwixt Shinola and... that other stuff. I cannot lead because I cannot find my ass with both hands and a flashlight. I will now open the floor to questions about my incompetence.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 2:55 PM on March 30, 2020 [2 favorites]

My non-MeFite friend added: "Some people are putting one foot in front of the other and hoping they end up somewhere they recognize"
posted by Gorgik at 10:12 AM on March 31, 2020 [5 favorites]

This was wonderful. Thank you!
posted by Quiplash at 4:41 PM on April 1, 2020