The same page

 Headed to the mountains the week before last, we stopped at a convenience store/gas station that had a Subway inside it. On road trips we pretty much always stop at Subways and get the exact same sandwiches every time. It's not because they are so great, it's that it forestalls a complicated decision-making process and arguments over various criteria (fat grams, factory farms, blah blah blah).

In accordance with the Governor's executive orders and I guess current NC law, there was a sign on the door mandating masks or other face coverings. Inside the store there was pretty good compliance.

But not the young ladies behind the counter at the Subway. Apparently the law did not apply to them. So I kept a disciplined 8 feet of separation and ordered our sandwiches. In ordering Graham's sandwich, I mentioned his dairy allergy and one of them said -- very earnestly -- "Oh we are very serious about allergies here." Great. Just not a global pandemic. After I sampled some of their hand sanitizer, she effusively apologized for the high level of aloe content in it.

I did not mention these details to my family members in the car, because to do so would have courted rancor, discord, and general fulminations. If I had been really on the ball, I would have not bought lunch from that Subway and figured out a way to report their non-compliance up the Subway chain of command. That would have delivered a message.

But to what end? America is plagued by absolutism, and it hasn't served us well. Sadly, we are all learning on the job about this pandemic. Like many, I was afraid that the mass protests after the murder of George Floyd would turn out to be super-spreader events. They appear not to have been. The combination of being outside plus pretty high adherence to mask-wearing seems to have mitigated the risk.

This past weekend the big motorcycle rally in Sturgis, South Dakota provides us with a new field test from the Right. Honestly, I hope and quasi-pray that a lot of people don't get really sick and then pass COVID on to higher-risk populations because of this rally. On matters like this it's less important to be proved right, although I guess if it can be a learning event for the skeptical Right, maybe the long-term public health benefits might offset the short-term pain of some sickness and death...

My stars, we have come to a crazy place where we have to think through such tortured calculuses as that. In March, when COVID first hit, there was a sense that it might be the shared crisis that brought people together and helped people on both sides of the divide dial back some our extremism and work together. We have, sadly, not been able to do that. We may still hope.

I honestly try to start each day with a forward-looking view, trying to figure out what I can do to move into the future in the most productive way for myself, my family, my clients, and the broader world. It helps no one to dwell exclusively on the past and the horrible things done by the other side to my team, though understanding how we got here is a part of it for sure.