Out and About in the Time of Covid 19

This blog is written by Lee Gale Gruen to help baby boomers, seniors, retirees, and those soon to retire find joy, excitement, and purpose in life after retirement. Her public lecture on this subject is titled: “Reinventing Yourself in Your Retirement.” Her memoir, Adventures with Dad: A Father and Daughter’s Journey Through a Senior Acting Class, is available by clicking here Amazon.com. Click here for her website: LeeGaleGruen.com

Now, on to my blog:

We’re in the midst of a mandate to shelter in place issued by our California governor. It’s an attempt to cripple the spread of the coronavirus gripping the world and increasing rapidly in my state. I’m trying to do my part, especially since I’m in a highly vulnerable category, age wise. I don’t feel vulnerable; I’m energetic and in good physical condition. However, Gov and my son don’t agree with me.

“Stay inside, Mom,” –my son’s constant refrain.

“But, I’ll just visit some friends, and I promise we’ll stay outside and stand six feet apart.”

“Gawd, you’re killing me, Mom.”

So, in the spirit of not wanting to add to my son’s stress over concern for himself and his wife and children (my adorable grandchildren), I’m sheltering in place. Today, after four days inside of my walls which I’m crawling by now, I decided to go for a solo hike in a patch of wilderness that borders my retirement community.

I meandered an isolated route to my destination, careful to avoid other signs of animal life, human or otherwise. Soon, I happened upon some marvelous bits of nature I’m usually too busy to pay much attention to. A cluster of large mushrooms was growing out of an old root which had broken the surface of the ground. How strange and fascinating they were.

As I traversed a dirt path, I looked down at my feet and discovered a sprinkling of that ubiquitous genus: little purple flower. How perky they looked against the hardscrabble ground.

Something moved. What was it? I stared and was stared at in return. Two deer were hunkered down in the shade under a majestic oak tree, ears perked up, on guard lest I proved to be an enemy and they had to make a quick get-away.

“Hey guys, I’m harmless.”

That didn’t seem to cut it. They remained steadfast, eyeing me carefully as I continued my ascent. I don’t blame them. In these trying times, who knows whom to trust.

More climbing, and I was getting winded. Never mind, it felt great to be outside in a pristine, undeveloped chunk of the world, no one else around, no sounds to distract me.

I crested the hill and came upon another shock of color–orange this time. Spring is here a riot of wild poppies insisted.

I dawdled, not wanting to return to the real world with its surreal dysfunction. Will we ever get through this? I must remember what a famous man once said: “This, too, shall pass.” One final mantra to keep in mind which has served so many to cope with the demons that drive and control them: “One day at a time.”

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Living in a World on Lockdown

This blog is written by Lee Gale Gruen to help baby boomers, seniors, retirees, and those soon to retire find joy, excitement, and purpose in life after retirement. Her public lecture on this subject is titled: “Reinventing Yourself in Your Retirement.” Her memoir, Adventures with Dad: A Father and Daughter’s Journey Through a Senior Acting Class, is available by clicking here Amazon.com. Click here for her website: LeeGaleGruen.com

Now, on to my blog:

These are stressful times; we are all sheltering in place to one degree or another. So many businesses have closed down that there’s no place to go, even if we wanted to. People are frightened of the unknown and don’t know what to do. Some are hoarding supplies “just in case.” Others are thinking about how to “get out of Dodge,” but there’s no place to run.

We top-of-the-heap humans are being bested by a microscopic, biological agent which has knocked us to our knees: a coronavirus labeled Covid 19. Viruses, those little devils, consist of molecules including proteins, nucleic acids, lipids, and carbohydrates, and are not considered to be alive as they can’t survive on their own. They must enter a living cell of a host in order to be able to multiply. Once inside, they go on to rapidly produce thousands of identical copies of themselves, causing various significant diseases in living things: humans, animals, and plants.

So, what can we do to cope with something as amorphous and seemingly beyond our control as a virus? Can we still find some joy, excitement, and purpose in the current, distressing epoch? Of course we can.

The first thing is to follow the sensible advice of the major health organizations such as frequent hand washing, avoidance of large gatherings of people, and covering our coughs and sneezes to protect others. Then, we must continue with our lives instead of stressing about the “what ifs” we can’t control.

Keep the current situation in perspective. Circumstances are unpredictable in the future, but that usually doesn’t stop us from moving forward. We could fixate on potential events such as taking a fall; being in an automobile accident; and on and on which would turn us all into agoraphobics if we let them. Instead, most of us walk carefully and maybe use an assistive device such as a cane or walker to lessen the chance of falling; we still drive or ride in cars, but with caution.

Grappling with the Covid 19 virus should be no different. Exercise the recommended precautions and continue with your life with a few adjustments. For example, you might spend more time outside in nature instead of inside as part of a large crowd. If you don’t have access to sprawling, wilderness areas, go outdoors and look around. Marvel at the living dinosaurs still among us called birds. How often have you really studied the trees, bushes, and flowers in your own neighborhood? Even a simple dandelion is beautiful poking out of a crack in the concrete or sprouting from a lawn.

Take this time of isolation to enjoy the books and videos that are piling up, clean out the closets, repair clothing and other possessions, make important phone calls, and tackle the myriad other things you can add to the list. Make this and any time productive and uplifting, and follow the old adage: “turn a lemon into lemonade.”

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Please forward my blog to anyone who might be interested and post it on your Facebook, Twitter and other social media. To reprint any material, contact me for permission at:  gowergulch@yahoo.com. If you want to be automatically notified when I post a new blog, click on the “Follow” button in the upper right corner of this page and fill in the information. To read my other blog posts, scroll down on this page or click on “Recent Posts” or “Archives” under the Follow button. To opt out of receiving this blog, contact me at the aforementioned email address, let me know, and I’ll remove you from the list.

Photo on Visual Hunt:  Public Domain

Widgets for Sale

This blog is written by Lee Gale Gruen to help baby boomers, seniors, retirees, and those soon to retire find joy, excitement, and satisfaction in life after retirement. Her public lecture on this subject is titled: “Reinventing Yourself in Your Retirement.” Her memoir, Adventures with Dad: A Father and Daughter’s Journey Through a Senior Acting Class, is available by clicking here Amazon.com. Click here for her website: LeeGaleGruen.com

Now, on to my blog:

Commerce has one goal–to sell its product. That is what advertising is all about. Unfortunately, it will use any means to make that goal a reality, including propaganda and appeals to our insecurities. The latter sends the message: be dissatisfied with what you are so you will buy my widget to fix it.

Let’s take for example the pathological focus on being young. There are huge amounts of advertising and products devoted to that end.

Someone sitting in a back room thinking about how to maximize profits figured out that aging is as inevitable as those old standbys: death and taxes, and it provides a steady, growing market. So, if youth is peddled to older folks as a must-have, then those in the “youth-business” can hawk their products to drive that dream. First they must create the idea that being young is the ideal and being old is bad: we are not attractive, desirable, or worthy unless we look young, dress young, and act young, emulating the models in the ads that they bombard us with all our waking hours. Their subliminal message: my widget will set you on the road to the Fountain of Youth which is the key to happiness, and it only costs $$$.

It’s our own fault that we buy into this scam and blindly accept an artificially created  reverence to youth which we feel we must chase at all costs. Do we even question such a postulate which is constantly being crammed down our collective gullets? Do we even ask ourselves, What’s so wonderful about being young? When is it okay to be okay about myself?

In a recent interview, 82-year-old actress Jane Fonda discussed her insecurities and admitted that self-acceptance has been difficult for her to this day. She claims that she has now sworn off cosmetic surgery which has been a part of her life for many years. How can a beautiful, successful, accomplished actress have such negative feelings about herself?

I remember my youth and especially my teenage years as a time of my life that was fraught with self-doubt, insecurity, and discontentment. True happiness and gratification have slowly crept up and grabbed me as I’ve aged. I can now look back at my “youth” and wave a fond farewell to a difficult chunk of time.

One of my blog readers emailed me some lines from a poem by the 14th century, Persian poet Hafez which should be savored like a cozy robe: “The way-station of old age is one to pass cleanly. Don’t let the urgencies of youth stain the whiteness of your hair.”

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Please forward my blog to anyone who might be interested and post it on your Facebook, Twitter and other social media. To reprint any material, contact me for permission at:  gowergulch@yahoo.com. If you want to be automatically notified when I post a new blog, click on the “Follow” button in the upper right corner of this page and fill in the information. To read my other blog posts, scroll down on this page or click on “Recent Posts” or “Archives” under the Follow button. To opt out of receiving this blog, contact me at the aforementioned email address, let me know, and I’ll remove you from the list.

Photo credit: timparkinson on Visualhunt / CC BY