Cheesecake, Corona Virus, and Our Modern Condition

It is overcast and windy, a cold front coming through.  I wish I had the kind of job where I could arrive late, and people wouldn't care because I appeared late with pumpkin bread fresh from the oven.

Let me record some other snippets--snapshots of modern life or a more random collection?

When I think of the last 2 weeks--really the last seven months--I think of that John Travolta character, Chili Palmer, who went through a whole movie saying, "Be cool."  As everything that could go wrong did go wrong, as everyone freaked out, Travolta's character says, "Be cool."

I say this to myself as the morning news tells us about a person in California who has the new corona virus, but has no connection to anyone who has traveled from places that already have the disease.  It is worrying, but worth remembering that we are all in more danger from the regular flu than this new virus.

It may be a more virulent virus than flu, however; the new virus seems to be killing 2-3% of people who contract it, which is higher than flu.

But no need to fear--Vice President Pence is in charge of the U.S. response to the disease.  Almost anyone on my Facebook and Twitter feed would be a better choice to head the U.S. response to the new corona virus. This may say less about the ones in charge and more about how much medical/science knowledge and experience my friends have and/or pastoral and education skills that will also be useful in facing a crisis.

A few other random parts of the week that I want to record:

--Yesterday, as much of the Christian world gave up something for Lent, I had an amazing piece of cheesecake.  A student brought it for our registrar, but she couldn't eat it because it had berries, which she's allergic to.  She thanked the student, and later, she asked me if I'd like it.  It looked amazing, and it tasted even better than it looked.  I am not giving up food for Lent, so I said yes.

--It was the kind of day/week/7 months that made me feel the need for a cheesecake reward.  I told myself that I was having cheesecake for dinner, which was sort of true.

--But more true--life is short, and we shouldn't turn away delicious cheesecake.

--Then I went to church, where I smudged ashes on foreheads and said, "Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return."  It's a very moving experience for me.  And it does remind me that life is short, and we shouldn't turn away delicious cheesecake.

And in a completely random note:  yesterday as I listened to an analyst talking about the Democratic debate in South Carolina, he referred to the New Left.  He was referring to current left-of-center believers, the ones who follow Bernie Sanders.  Back in my Sociology student days of the 1980's, we talked about the New Left as the 60's radicals who were new, compared to the leftists of the earlier years of the 20th century, who tended to be communists or anarchists.