Monday Morning Blues and Brights

I remember when it would be Sunday night and I was short and I’d be watching TV and I’d resent seeing Jessica Fletcher’s dumb face on Murder She Wrote

because it meant that the next morning it would be Monday and school would start once again.

I didn’t have any significant problems at school beyond later hiding/denying that I had epilepsy so I don’t know what my problem was.

Because, even now, I wake up at some ungodly early hour and hate that it’s Monday because I decided last year that Monday was to be the “clean the apartment” and “do the laundry” day.

And now it’s Monday once again and I don’t want to.

Poor Monday. It just can’t win.

Yet, in the words of my late great mom,

“Suck it up.”

So I cleaned the apartment and the laundry is humming and, since it’s Monday which feels like the most unwanted day, I also check the status of another unwanted-but-happening-anyway reality: coronavirus!

Ah yes.

America seems to be winning/doing the worst.

And I’m sort of half-wondering what the Doomsday Clock predictors are thinking right now.

I mean, they had moved the hands of the metaphorical clock the closest the hands had ever been to doom o’clock back in January.

(I have to wonder if the clock hands were excited about it.)

Yet, the Doomsday Clock isn’t somehow in charge of the world.

It’s really nothing more than a big data-driven effort to call world’s bluff. It’s an effort to say to the world:

“Uh, we have to change our ways because, uh, statistically we’re running out of positive future outcomes.”

You know, like how Dr. Strange did his witchcraft (or “probability on meth”) in the Marvel movie Infinity War

SPOILER

to foresee how many possible ways the immediate future could play out in a positive way

and he came up with:

And, since he had a cape and could do crazy things with his head and hands, no one checked his math.

I bring up Infinity War/Endgame because the comparison is a little spooky (the writers for Marvel definitely read the news) because it seems America is doing its own civil war endgame, but… hold on…

I bring up Infinity War/Endgame to improve my Monday outlook, if not also yours (aka you four readers of mine and my great aunt Evie who I adore).

Because, in the words of former Irish President Mary Robinson: “The Doomsday Clock is a globally recognized indicator of the vulnerability of our existence.”

And it’s hyper clear we’re vulnerable right now. We don’t need a clock to see that.

But, unlike the comic book people, we do have more than one path forward.

Yeah, we probably have six ways we could all move forward and avoid doomsday.

There are quite a few big changes that, if they happened, could help move the Doomsday Clock hands back from 100 seconds to doom o’clock to, say, 200 seconds to doom o’clock.

Sidebar: It’s odd to me how the scientists have reverted to “baby time”. You know, when a baby is over a year old, most still refer to it as, say, sixteenth months old, and not a year and four months.

I understand child development and the significance of time but… twelve months equals a year for the rest of the planet, why not babies?

Probably because it takes longer longer to say and we are lazy and stuck in our ways.

And that’s what’s going around.

I bring up babies because that’s what America has a surplus of and also it would be helpful if the Doomsday Clock scientists said we were two whole minutes plus thirty whole seconds to doom o’clock rather than 100 seconds.

Does 100 seconds sound scarier? It must.

In any case, it’s Monday and things are dire. But we have at least six ways to positively move forward.

Things could dramatically turn around.

For instance, we Americans could start doing what’s possible (wear masks, don’t have house parties, grow up etc.).

Forget the America of old, which did the “impossible” and then bragged about it for years and years and years and years.

Modern day America is struggling to do the possible.

But I hope, rant and pray that changes.

Low bar, Americans. Low bar.

Forget the moon. Forget the Transcontinental Railroad and the automobile…

Let’s just try to do what’s been done before!

By many of those living elsewhere in the world!

Let’s do what the rest of the world is doing before we’re all dead.

And, sticking to optimism… America could turn its culture around.

OR…

America could vote in federal leadership which aggressively addresses climate change and systemic inequality, lives in a shared reality with its people and its international allies, has some sense of morality and considers science to be a thing.

That would surely move the clock hands back a bit.

I mean, if there are any Americans left by the time November comes.

I picture Putin cheering at the thought of America’s demise but it doesn’t look too bright in Russia right now either.

I mean, it’s Russia. It never looks too bright in Russia.

Any opportunity to post a photo of Omar Sharif (RIP) will not be squandered. 😻

But, you know, it’s Monday. Nothing seems bright on Monday.

Nothing except my laundry because this new detergent is not fooling around.

Forced-cheer conclusion:

Personal survival all comes down to having the ability to feel grateful for the simple pleasures in a day which are inevitable.

However, if it’s Monday and you are too bitter to feel grateful for those, then find joy in the unexpected positive outcomes in a day.

Like how surprisingly effective this relatively cheap detergent is.

I’m American.

Of course I’ll end this rant with an advertisement.