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Australia has delayed too long in shutting everything down, and the number of cases is rapidly escalating.
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Hockey games are being delayed until May. I'm almost tempted to sign up, but I'd still only get a few games at the end of the season.
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Our gardening club met in person last night. We only had about 20-25 members where we usually have 35-40. The average age was much younger than usual. We spaced the chairs further apart, one person took names and details, and although supper was served, the servers handed out the food.
We'll be cancelling all meetings going forward, but looking at options for doing a meeting or two via streaming.
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The garden trail that was to run this weekend has been postponed, we don't know until when.
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I emailed the company brokering the job in Canberra and got a 'it's still on', but watching everything shut down, I'm doubtful. It may be a lean winter.
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A very small thinkpiece by me: How to be 'church' in the midst of pandemic. It seems there's a lot of people really straining with the idea that they might have to close down church gatherings, and a lot of quoting of the 'do not let us give up meeting as some have been in the habit of doing' by Paul which...
Sometimes I do not understand my fellow Christians. Really do not understand. Context matters; the biblical passage were people who thought they could be Christians alone, and Paul is advising them (like John Donne many centuries later) that they're not an island and they'll benefit from Christian community. It's not about refusing to sequester oneself in the face of pandemic.
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Now that the garden trail isn't on this weekend, I'm feeling a little discombobulated. I've been focused on this for the last few months so...this is new. Different. Maybe confusing.
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Hockey games are being delayed until May. I'm almost tempted to sign up, but I'd still only get a few games at the end of the season.
--
Our gardening club met in person last night. We only had about 20-25 members where we usually have 35-40. The average age was much younger than usual. We spaced the chairs further apart, one person took names and details, and although supper was served, the servers handed out the food.
We'll be cancelling all meetings going forward, but looking at options for doing a meeting or two via streaming.
--
The garden trail that was to run this weekend has been postponed, we don't know until when.
--
I emailed the company brokering the job in Canberra and got a 'it's still on', but watching everything shut down, I'm doubtful. It may be a lean winter.
--
A very small thinkpiece by me: How to be 'church' in the midst of pandemic. It seems there's a lot of people really straining with the idea that they might have to close down church gatherings, and a lot of quoting of the 'do not let us give up meeting as some have been in the habit of doing' by Paul which...
Sometimes I do not understand my fellow Christians. Really do not understand. Context matters; the biblical passage were people who thought they could be Christians alone, and Paul is advising them (like John Donne many centuries later) that they're not an island and they'll benefit from Christian community. It's not about refusing to sequester oneself in the face of pandemic.
--
Now that the garden trail isn't on this weekend, I'm feeling a little discombobulated. I've been focused on this for the last few months so...this is new. Different. Maybe confusing.
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Not going to church seems sensible right now. I imagine we’ll do the same next week.
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Yes, I'm furious about it. China and South Korea's hard work and self sacrifice bought us time, and we SQUANDERED it through negligence. In dealing with this, we should have acted more like China/South Korea.
The time to be shutting football matches etc down was WEEKS ago.
At the very latest, the first recorded community transmission in Victoria - the first COVID case where the person hadn't been overseas or had contact with another known COVID case - should have been the trigger for cancelling any non-essential gatherings of over 100 people.
I'm wondering how much Australia messed up because we have a terrible Prime Minister; and how much we didn't pay attention to what China/South Korea were doing and replicate it ASAP because Australia as a country was too racist to learn from their expertise. Argh.
And we should have been insisting on 14-day home isolation for overseas travellers from the US much sooner - the US has been the leading source of Australian COVID cases for a while now - but we didn't, presumably partly because incompetence; partly fear of economic loss; and partly presumably racism means America is not seen as a threat? Argh.
Back before I got too ill to do paid work, I did over a year working for Health and Ageing in pandemic preparedness planning for bird flu, and the Australian Government apparently lost all the plans written by world-leading contagious disease experts in conjunction with public servants, because they sure as hell haven't been implementing them...
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He choked on the mention of economic measures. Literally gasped between the words.
and how much we didn't pay attention to what China/South Korea were doing and replicate it ASAP because Australia as a country was too racist to learn from their expertise.
I'd say a LOT. Singapore and HK worked out what to do, they shut it down, they limited the spread. Singapore, yes, it's a Muslim govt; HK, though, has enough rebellion in it to be a lot like Australia (although more disciplined, let's be real).
Yes, we've squandered our delayed caseload, and our government would rather choke on economic viability than let go of their ideology.
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I know that for many older adults church is about the only social thing they get each week, so it's hard for them to give it up. But seriously, they need to right now. It's more important to protect themselves from the virus than it is to congregate. It's not like God requires more than one for worship and prayer.
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The other thing is that church community should be more than the worship service once a week, but we haven't really worked out the local community network angle, sticking to our families and close friendship groups. And so people are nervous and worried at losing 'church'.
*hugs*
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On the other side, the PM this morning said 'anything we do, we'll be doing for the next six months' which...is a long time for people to be without work and income, but not very long in terms of government projects. So. I have no idea.
I just realised, we still have money in the mortgage offset which we can withdraw. I've been holding off taking it out because it's excess that B1 has paid into our mortgage and it wasn't technically 'mine'. But it's there and we can use that through winter on the hope that spring will be looking up...
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Since I live in Oakland, we're part of the Shelter-in-place order. This feels more real that just me self-isolating since last week.
On the church front: last Friday, the Episcopal Diocese of California (which only covers Northern California) ordered all the churches to move to other worship modalities. The parish I occasionally visit immediately went to FB video for Sunday worship both 8am and 10am. I chose the 8am service which is usually low volume in person. The bulletin was on the church website so easy to follow along.
The whole thing felt very intimate. There was the priest, one deacon, and one reader. Everyone keeping distance from one another and they held in the chapel rather than the main sanctuary. I didn't have wine on hand but I did have a cracker for communion.
It can be done. Fr. Mauricio emphasized that this joined us with people who are usually shut in or just don't make it in and encouraged everyone to leave feedback about the approach.
I hope you and yours stay as safe as possible and the job stuff works out.
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My church (Sydney Anglican, which is heavily hierarchical) has resisted cancelling worship services, but I think the instant that they start livestreaming, the attendance numbers will fall. Which...that's okay. So long as we all keep an eye out on each other and care and pray for each other, reading the bible and staying connected, we'll be fine. It's just a new modality of worship, as you said. I really like that word: modality.
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At the moment, for me, that means I try to go out for my walk as soon as there's enough light to be safe or I put on my headlamp and change up my route. I normally walk downtown and back but I'm going to loop closer to home. That early, I'm not encountering that many people and when I did this morning, I crossed the street so as not to cross paths.
I know there was some grumbling about the change in services. Leading up to the full closure, the diocese had already put a nix on communion. At that point, it was already a matter of time and the Bishop was really clear in his communication with everyone.
This is new: a full page of digital church services: Church Online: Connection and Formation.
I think I mentioned that I had slack off even going to church so I'm letting myself be guided to what I need right now.
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Also, NBA and NHL shut down last Thurs (March 12) when a basketball player tested positive. I think that's when everyone in Canada went, "Oh crap, there's no hockey??? It really MUST be serious!" But yeah, in hindsight maybe they should have shut down all sports even earlier.
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