Q 14 Top of the Morning to You

I feel a little silly telling you all that happened to me from 7Am to noon today, but isolation makes one aware of little things. It began with the weigh-in and I’m hovering around 91 kg. good.

Read the news on Apple on my cell phone and saw the story of the Skagit Valley Chorale.  For those of you who don’t have a clue where Skagit Valley is, it is a farming and fishing and timber community, very rural about 75 miles north of Seattle. The LA times reported the story of a group of singers (121) of which 60 showed up to practice on March 10. The Average age was 67: youngest 31 and oldest 83.  They distanced and no one felt sick. They brought their own sheet music.  Three days later the epidemic hit. ¾ of the members tested positive. This an object lesson to the President that going to Church on Easter or celebrating Passover with a seder is a bad idea.  So far only 2 of the 60 in Skagit have died. That’s a 3.3 % rate of death. If, for a moment, one considers what that means to a country of over 300 million, it  equates to 9 million dead approximately.  Message: stay at home!! Please!!  

At 8:30 I went to get my baguette, coffee and the newspaper and to go to the Pharmacist. Got my bread and walked into the pharmacy wondering how good the French National Health system really is.  I had three nearly empty prescription bottles from a pharmacy in Seattle, 5000 miles away.  I asked Cedric, the pharmacist, if he could refilled my prescriptions.  Without hesitation he said, “Yes, you need them for your health!”  I had my whole health history record on my cell phone to show him, but he only asked my name and my French address.  I asked for 90-day supply and he gave me 15 days. I asked if I could get another refill if I needed it. Again without hesitation,” Yes”. I asked if I could buy a mask and he told me they are only for Medical personnel. He added, “go home and stay at home.”

When I got home, I got a WhatsApp call from Belfast.  My old Irish friend from UW psychiatry days sent me a wonderful U-tube of an Italian opera singing on his balcony to the whole street. When he finished the street clapped including the policeman on his motorcycle. c I was feeling tears. Singing has a soul cleansing quality.

My friend said, “I sent a book of poems in the mail.” While I was holding the phone, I went out and checked my PO Box and there it was, 8 days later in my hand.

BTW to Americans get a WhatsApp account. It is the preferred communication in the rest of there world. Only Americans are still stuck on Cell Phones through one of our monopolies.  I use Cell, text, email and WhatsApp. The latter is preferred.

In passing, it was 78 last Wednesday and today it is snowing.  The vintners were all worried that we would get a cold snap and kill all the buds on the vines. Cheer up , it could be worse so I cheered up and…

Finally, I read Bob Kagan in the NYT from the Brookings Institute article about confluence of epidemics, economic collapse and International conflict. The changes brought on by the influenza epidemic of 1918-20 followed by 1929 debacle on Wall Street followed by drought in the middle west changed our country forever.  I think we are going through that now with COVID19 and the economic collapse which has led to Mr Trump’s withdrawal from World Humanitarian leadership.  Chinese plane loads of masks and PPE to all the worlds’ needy has taken all the moral high ground. Insisting on tough sanctions on Iran and branding the global problem as Wuhan virus is doing international relations long term harm.  The world after this will be a different place.    

Q 8 Am I My Brother’s Keeper?

A robo email from a Congressman was the first mail I saw today.  It was from Hank Johnson, GA-4, who was a friend in the Congress. He was talking about the need to take care of one another in this time of healthcare peril. He was asking the Georgia governor to take decisive and strong action lead Georgians to take care of one another.

It reminded me of a conversation he and I had one day on the floor of the House.  He asked me, “Why I wore a bolo tie when I wasn’t Hispanic or native American?”  I replied, “Because we are too tribal in this body. I want Hispanics to know I respect and honor their history. This is a simple open way to express it. I know it works because I can see the reaction of Hispanics in the Capitol as I walk around.”

This epidemic has driven us together, if we don’t miss the opportunity to see our universal plight. Corona virus is an equal opportunity enemy.  Rich, poor, old, young, and all ethnicity get their share of the problem. The melding on the floor of the Congress crosses every tribal line on the floor including age, sexual orientation and financial status or ideological position.

My second email of the day was with a good friend who happens to be staunch Republican who supports President Trump. How could he be my friend/brother?  I got to know him from long contacts during our Congressional activities. I emailed him because I needed a favor and I knew he would respond, but only after he gave me a bunch of Rep/Dem guff.

Before the epidemic was noticed in the USA, on 1 February I went to France to a little house I have in a rural wine area. I was going to chill out after teaching last quarter at the University of Washington. I planned to spend about 60 days, but I did not buy a return ticket.

 

Then the tsunami of COVID19 hit and it hit particularly hard in Seattle, my hometown. The question for me was,” Shall I return home or stay sheltered in place in an isolated and safe spot in France.”

Two problems reared their ugly heads.  Passports and French visitor visas.  My 10-year passport expires in August, so I needed to consider renewal before the problem got worse.  I remember the difficulties during government shutdowns in the 1990’s that people had in getting documents from the State Dept. so I thought I should act now.

My second problem was the lack of a French visitor visa.  Since my anticipated stay was less than the 90-day visa, I opted not to apply for a visa which is permissible. The question,” How do I rectify this problem?”

Having served in the State Department in Kinshasa, Zaire I knew about the consulates which our government operates.  I called the Bordeaux Consulate and the Paris Embassy, to no avail. I called multiple times and worked the phone tree as directed and left messages with cell and email information. I know these are good public servants who are swamped by the questions of anxious people, so a lack of response was understandable.

After a week I was getting more anxious and I thought of my Republican friend.  I called and asked for a favor.  I know the atmosphere in the House is combative at best and poisonous at worst, but I know my friend.  His response was,” Glad you were smart enough to call a reliable Republican and not a dastardly Democrat.” Then he asked to be awarded my Bolo ties in my will if I died. Final note was,” I should call in 3 days if I didn’t hear from the State Department.”

The next morning, I got a call from the Consul General in Paris who is helping me with my problems. 

Members often fail to see each other as human beings but we all are in this together.  No matter how anxious or isolated one feels we can see our brother’s problem and help as Christ suggested in the story of the good Samaritan.  My Republican friend was a good Samaritan.  He may disagree on ideological stuff, but he helped his brother, expecting nothing in return except a bolo tie. Hopefully this crisis can bring us back to talking and compromising on solutions that help us all.

Q 4 Decision Day

Should I escape isolation in rural France and enter Isolation in my apartment on QA Hill in Seattle? Donald says, “Come home now or plan to stay away indefinitely.” I’ve seen on CNN the marvelous planning made for American’s re-entry at JFK.

 

Why come back?  Safety would be the first reason.  My own home in a rural French village is probably as safe as my apartment in a Co-op in Seattle with 45 other residents, many of whom are older like me.  There are the same logistical problems in Seattle that there are in the Medoc region. But I am more secluded from access to the virus here than there.

A second factor in returning is the journey itself.  Two long and one short plane flights present their own problems with recycled air with perhaps a virus carrier or two, in the mix of passengers. Add to that, the chaos of three airport experiences in Paris, Chicago and Seattle and you don’t have a reason to choose that way to spend 2-3 days. If the SST had ever flown from Paris to Seattle it might seem like a positive option.

What’s positive about staying here? :  My own Home and miles of backroads to walk in the spring.  Just yesterday I saw the first buds on the grape vines, so spring is almost here. Food is easy to get in small shops within a 5 kilometres radius. It is 18-20 degrees C and now we are having sunshine.  The Carrefore Market is like the Ballard Market and has everything, even toilet paper. It is 6.5 kilometres away, closer than COSTCO to my apartment.

Isolation is the biggest problem for me.  I can’t see you or talk to you, but time and space are intellectual concepts.  If I were home, I couldn’t visit you or hug my daughter and her husband or my granddaughter which means there is no difference between being 6-8 miles away in Seattle and being 5154 miles in Bordeaux. The platforms on the internet like What’s App shrink the distance dramatically.  I remember when I went to Ghana in 1961. A letter took at least 2 weeks to make a one way trip.

Getting sick is a subject that one must think about since this is an infectious disease epidemic. The French health care system is at least equal to ours.  My biggest handicap is my lack of facility in French.  I’m getting better.  I’m about up to a refugee level who has been stranded in a country for 6 months. Necessity is the mother of invention. I have two good French friends, Corrinne and Guy, who guide me and fill in the gaps.

The other day Corrinne called and said, “Don’t go shopping.  I’m going so give me your list and I’ll do it for you.”  Almost simultaneously, Guy arrived with the form I need to have in my pocket if I leave the house.  It spells out what I am out of the house to do.  With friends like them I will survive.

This a surreal time for the world.  All the givens are up for grabs. I feel lucky to have relatively good options.  Two of my Democratic friends have already died in Seattle, both over 65.   That's in a town with the best health care system and practitioners. Keep safe, wash your hands and I'll be back soon.    

Q-2 Happy St. Patrick’s day

No need to hop out of bed so I arose at 8:23, began by a weigh-in 91.9 kg, dressed and ate the heel of yesterday’s baguette with goose pate. Then off to see the world.  My episcerie, Chez Joelle is open and I bought expresso, pain Chocolat, a demi Baguet and the Newspaper, Sud Ouest, for 3,65 euros.

Then the adventure into quarantine began in earnest. I drove 6.5 kilometres  to the city, Lesparre in the foolish hope that my French class,7 souls, might be still be on because it was less than 10 people.  My hopes were dashed by the closed iron gates to the old post office building.

No problem.  Off to the local coffee roaster, La Maison D’artemis to get a second expresso and some human contact. The manager told me I could buy and carry-out but no seating was allowed by the Presidential  order. A favorite lunch spot, La Brochetterie, was closed but the Laverie was open and machines were running.

I’m saving my trip to the grocery store, so I have some place to see people today. We often want to get away from people, but we want to control it, not an official government order. Social isolation forces you back inside yourself more than many of us want to experience. I was never very enamored of retreats when you spent 2-3 days in silence. I do enough introspection by myself.  Contact with people is a welcome relief from being with me and my thoughts.

I just got an What’s App St. Patrick’s day card from a friend in Belfast. We tried to talk on What’s App, which is the preferred European  communication, but technology wasn’t flawless today. So he will try later.  Perhaps the internet goblins will let us talk.

Last week I went to the Café Polyglot, a local once a month coffee klatch where people are speaking German, English and American, Spanish and French. I met a woman who lives in my village of Civrac.  She was there on Sunday evening when they counted the votes in our municipal election. I saw her and she and her husband invited me to her home so Im going go and try to understand what happened in a village of 400+ voters.  I think the Mayor lost his majority.  So great change is about t happen in a village that has church and government  school but no store or restaurant or bar.  It does have a post office and a library open 8 hours a week. Which brings me to books.

I pray to god, Amazon, who says she will bring me some more reading material in English by the end of March.  Does Quarantine apply to UPS trucks?  I’ve seen them last week but that was before the D’eluge. I’m down to two good books but I may descend to the trash novels people have left in my bathroom.

This 500 words is a reflection of what isolation does to this person in the best wine country in the world.  

This man Plans and god Laughs

I came to France to escape distractions, so I could work on a book that has been in my head for a long time. As I arrived here, the COVID19 virus emerged in Wuhan, China on the Yangtze River.  I visited there in 1982 when Seattle went to China to establish a sister city relationship with Chongqing. The eruption of the virus seemed a long way away then and now.

38 Years later, I'm sitting in Civrac-en-Medoc, population less than 1000. Yesterday they had the municipal elections in every town in France. If your town is more than 1000 voters you can vote a straight ticket by selecting a list. Couqueques has more than 1000 voters and so their election was called by 7:15 pm.  My candidate and good friend, Guy Durand St. Omer won.   In Queyrac with more than a 1000 voter, my good friend and restaurant owner Myriame Roure knew by 7:45 she lost 450-215.

But in Civrac with 450 voters, voter can select from all lists so every candidates’s votes must be counted.  I live next to the Community hall where all this was going on so I stuck my head in. 135 people were still there at 10:00 Pm when I went home to bed. The paper today says the result are not in yet. 

On Saturday night I ate dinner in Myriame’s restaurant and she had just seen on TV that all restaurants in France will be closed on Monday(today).  She was more devastated by losing her business than losing an election.  She hoped it would only be for two weeks.  It will be very hard after that.

I have an Irish friend who has been bugging me to see his friend, also a psychiatrist in Bordeaux.  Today I succumbed and called Michael in Bordeaux.  He is involved in the medical system in the University and told me, “Stay where you are. Stay at home. The president will make a big announcement tonight.  The whole country is going to be locked down for probably 45 days. People can go out to get food but otherwise social isolation is the order of the day.”

I brought 8 books with me to read but I’m down to my last two.  I hope Amazon can deliver some in 2 weeks as promised. Who knows.

Reading has always been my place of solace since childhood. Today I’m starting a book called “A Gentleman in Moscow.” It is the tale of a man who is sentenced by the Bolsheviks to stay inside the Metropole Hotel under, essentially, house arrest.

It struck me as I started to read, that this my life unfolding in front of my eyes.  I have been in France now for six weeks and there is no end in sight.  I’m safe and I have food and money and toilet paper. I speak very poor French and I’m an American epidemic Refugee.  My president has excluded me and then took it back, but I’d have problems moving in France due to the Quarantine. I thought what a wonderful blog topic.

So that’s my plan, God.  Have a laugh!!!