The Essential

One thing we will all need to hold onto if and when this pandemic actually recedes is appreciation of small things. In times of food supply chain anxiety, we have made it a practice to really focus on eating all leftovers, often incorporating them somewhat creatively into lunches. I've been learning a lot more about ways to use various types of tinned fish and seafood, and at times I've taken to using husks of bread to sop oil out of the corners of, say, an empty can of sardines or anchovies. Why the hell not? I have come to think of anchovies as the bacon of the sea.

Also, the people. Particularly when we were all maximally freaked out, everyone was showing their appreciation for the people who work in grocery stores, drive delivery trucks, etc. We need to keep that up.

By way of contrast, when Covid infections in meat packing facilities ramped up, Trump's idea of showing his appreciation for them was to invoke legislation that -- though legally paper-thin -- tried to make it easier for their employers to keep plants open, because he deemed a safe and constant supply of cheap meat for Americans to be more important than the health of the workers, more or less. We cannot forget bullshit like this. He does so much that is wrong that it is hard to hold it in our heads.

Jonathan Safran Foer was much closer to the point right around then, when he half-called for all of us to become vegetarians. I'm working on it. Not quite there, but getting closer.

After these weeks of protests, rioting, burning, and police brutality, we need to keep this in mind. We need to fight for changes in policing -- and I am learning and assimilating the arguments about defunding the police as we go. But we also need to keep in mind the spirit of generosity towards and gratitude for others who do lower-wage work. While, however, recognizing that our more flexible labor market offers us a considerable competitive advantage over places like much of Western Europe where it's almost impossible to fire people, and therefore it's so for companies to pull the trigger on hiring people full time. This is the circle we need to square.