brooding

Small b.  It's of such little importance yet it's a big part of everyone's life.  When we say we are thinking we're not working on or particularly interested in nuclear fission.  We're thinking about  ourselves and what happened or didn't happen; what we did or didn't do.
Erik Erikson would say that's perfectly healthy to do.  To think about what happened and what was or wasn't done, perfectly healthy especially at my age but you need to come to a resolution to move on. 
In his 'Stages of Development' he divided the stages into 4 parts, your age, conflict, resolution, culmination.
My age which he labeled '65 to death'.

[Yeah, he was a German scientist.  He couldn't say 65 to everlasting life.]

My conflict is integrity vs. despair, the resolution is wisdom and the culmination is existential integrity; a sense of integrity strong enough to withstand physical disintegration.
In other words: Older adults need to look back on their lives and feel a sense of fulfillment. Notice he said we need to.  All his stages have to be resolved before you can move on fulfilled.

In adolescence one of his more frequently referenced stages; the work or the conflict is identity vs. diffusion.  You need to develop a sense of self and personal identity.  Success is staying true to yourself.  Failure leads to role confusion and a weak sense of self; what Erickson referred to as prolonged adolescence.  The teenager tests different roles and integrates them to form an identity separate from others.
 
I think it was the news reports of despair, especially, among health care providers that got me on this road. 
There are things in our control 
What's not in our control does not define us. 
I suspect we as a nation do not have strong egos  We lack a strong sense of our personal worth.  We take on failure as our own. 
Our first responders are despairing over their inability to do their jobs.
Publicly we need to place the blame where it belongs for everyone to see. 
Some of our political leaders with strong egos are beginning to do that.  Thank you Governor Cuomo.
Like a good American: I want more!
       

On a positive note

The air in New York City is so much cleaner:

Journaling through the pandemic

It's a great stay in place activity.  Did I mention I am here in New York City, the current epicenter of the U.S.A. pandemic?  So I'm mindful of cleanliness and staying a safe distance.  I have also been going out because I wanted sunlight for Vitamin D and I thought Ultraviolet light killed viruses.  There is no clinical study that I could find that said UV light killed all viruses or Covid 19.  One survey showed it increased the herpes virus. 
What is important about sunlight?  It raises our immune system and that's a good thing now.
So I got some sun at Washington Square Park.  Not crowded, quiet, and sunny!

Outrageous Facts and Thoughts

I have said our first case of coronavirus in the U.S. was January 21.  Now I hear it was January 20 the same day as the first case in South Korea.  Then it's said that that first case was a traveler from another country.  So our first, real, honest, true case is the case that is the result of community spread, home grown.  I've lost track of that date.

He admits he grabbed women by the pussy.  He had sex with another woman while his wife was pregnant.  He paid a porn star to keep quiet about their affair.  He believes Putin and not our own intelligence agencies.  He stared at an eclipse without eye protection.  He put his daughter and son-in-law in charge.  He gave his son-in-law a top secret clearance against the advice of experts.  He calls the press the enemy of the people.  He calls women nasty.  He mocks the disabled.

Stephanie Ruhle, anchor at MSNBC, worked 14 years in the finance industry in hedge fund sales before joining Bloomberg News.  She is on the air five days a week for an hour.  Today I heard her ask if the coronavirus will prevent food delivery to our supermarkets?  Then she said 'we'll be right back after these words from our sponsor'.

People in Spain are sleeping on hospital floors.  Doctors and nurses in Italy are dying.  2 trillion dollars,  30,000 ventilators, moratorium on student debt,  bailout Boeing,   500 billion for the airline and hotel bailout,     80% of those selling stocks that crashed the market are 10% of the stockholders.
That was yesterday.  Stay tuned for an update.

'Anyone who knows anything of history knows that great social changes are impossible without feminine upheaval.  Social progress can be measured by the social position of the fair sex, the ugly ones included.'
Karl Marx

'It is well enough that people of the nation do not understand our banking and monetary system, for if they did, I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning'
Henry Ford

RIP Terrence McNally

The first victim to the Corona virus that I have a distant attachment to is Terrence McNally.  I saw his play 'Frankie and Johnie in the Claire de Lune' many years ago.  It was brilliant with an extraordinary performance by Kathy Bates.  I've seen 13 of the ones listed below and I enjoyed them all. He is honored as America's first major openly gay playwright.  He wrote the first openly gay, positive, confident, character in his Broadway play 'And Things That Go Bump in the Night' in 1964.  Some other notable works:
Plays:
The Ritz
It's Only a Play
The Lisbon Traviata
Lips together, Teeth Apart
Love! Valour! Compassion!
Master Class
Corpus Christi
Deuce
Musicals:
The Rink
Kiss of the Spider Woman
Ragtime
The Full Monty
The Visit
Chita Rivera: The Dancer's Life
Catch Me If You Can
Anastasia
Three films of his plays, four original operas, and four TV shows.
He is survived by his husband Tom Kirdahy.

I just think these Paul Cadmus paintings would have inspired Terrance McNally.

Making a to do list

Yeah, well, so Jim's not walking so much these days.  I do try to get out for some fresh air but it's not to a show, museum, movie, brunch, restaurant, Macy's, church, gym, park, or happy hour.  It's around the block, actually.  So now I have the opportunity to work on my space.  You know clean [cleaning lady isn't coming anymore] laundry [until I find a laundromat that's open {isn't that an 'essential' business in NYC}] ... 'and such like' to quote Miss South Carolina. 
I started today on the kitchen.  I loaded and started the dishwasher.  I cleaned my tea kettle [boiled vinegar in it] and then I went to the computer.
It's the coronavirus world and day whatever of the Coronavirus worldwide [don't know for sure because China immediately put in a gag order and has not been completely honest].  For us here in the U.S. it started on Jan. 21, 2020 with our first confirmed case, the day after South Korea's first confirmed case.  Three months later in the U.S. we're doing 15 days of a kind of shutdown [each state and municipality is different].  Got about a week left.  Then our President will decide if it's back to work or continue some kind of shutdown.
Within a week of South Korea's first case their president ordered the manufacture of test kits and they tested.  They found; locked down and isolated areas of contagion.  When someone tests positive they contact trace.  Anyone who had contact with an infected person was isolated and monitored.  They educated the public on preventative measures, such as social distancing, washing hands, avoiding groups of people and they monitored.
To do #1 Intervene fast before it's a crisis
To do #2 Test early, test often, test safely
To do # 3 Contact tracing, isolation and surveillance
To do # 4 Educate and enlist the public's help
Have we clicked off any of those on our to do list?  Mr.President!

Northern Italy then and today

Alain De Botton, philosopher and writer of 15 books, one of which 'How Proust can change your life' I read.  It's considered witty.  Me, eh. I barely remember it.  It was Proust finely strained to extract the author's views.  Today in the NY Times his article titled 'Camus on the Coronavirus' is about Camus' book "The Plague" which I read 40 years ago, and I remember, especially the image in the beginning of the book of finding one dead rat and then another and then another.
In this piece Botton mentions the Italian plague of 1630, 300 years after the infamous Black Plague. Never heard of 'The Italian Plague'.
So I googled.
It occurred from 1630 to 1633 and hit Lombardy most severely killing 25% of the Italian population.  The plague resulted in the decline of Venice as a commercial and political power.  Venice lost 33% of its population.
It is believed to have been spread by French, German and Venetian troops returning from the 30 years war and it is now identified as the Bubonic Plague.
Today we are hearing about infected asymptomatic individuals with Covid 19 unwittingly spreading this present day pandemic.
Today there are 650 cases of bubonic plague reported annually, with 10% mortality rate with treatment [antibiotics], 30 to 90 % if untreated.
So my takeaway is keep to the basics: always wash your hands for 20 seconds, cover your coughs and sneezes, eat right, exercise, and get plenty of fresh air which by the way right now in New York City is at its best.  And don't go reading Camus' 'The Plague' now.  Another time most definitely. And this

  relax.

Meanwhile back at the Whitney

Covid 19 has shut down virtually everything in the city so I thought I would return to The Whitney.  I have some more photos and more to say.
I think I made it plain in the last post that the inspiration for the artists' work was political.  It was to represent the glory of the common man and woman.

 These are excerpts from Eisenstein's film of a local wedding.  The headgear the villagers are wearing is from a sunken ship.  The containers listed them as children's clothing.  The villagers thought they were too pretty for children so they turned them into head ornaments.

This is a portrait of a worker by Marion Greenwood [1909-1970] of Brooklyn and Woodstock New York.  From 1932 to 1936 she lived in Mexico and studied with Rivera.  This is a detail from the Red Hook Housing Project commissioned by the Federal Art Project. Her work is in the public art collections of a dozen museums including the Smithsonian.
And on another floor of the Whitney in the exhibition 'Craft In Art' were these:

                                                                       embroidery

VIDA AMERICANA

The 2020s are off to a roaring start with one of the best exhibitions that I have seen in a long time.  Not just because of its variety of artists:
Ben Shawn
David Alfaro Siqueiros
Eitaro Ishigaki
Marion Greewood
Diego Rivera
Sergei Eisenstein
Jacob Lawrence
Everett Gee Jackson
Jackson Pollack
Jose Clemente Orozco
Charles White
Alfredo Ramos Martinez
Frida Kahlo

But also its presentation of Culture, Radical Politics, the influence they have on the artist and artists influence on each other.
Such as the relationship between David Alfaro Siqueiros and Jackson Pollack.

David Alfaro Siquerios was born in Camargo, Chihuahua on 12/29/1896. Died in Cuernavaca, Mexico on 1/6/1974
Jackson Pollock was born in Cody, Wyoming on 1/28/1912. Died in Springs, NY on 8/11/56.

At 15 Siqueiros was involved in a student strike. At 18 he was fighting with the Constitutional Army against Victoriano Huerta [military officer & president by coup].  After the fall of Huerta his Constitutional Army fought against both Zapata and Pancho Villa.  After his Army gained control he moved to Paris and met Cezanne where he absorbed the influence of Cubism.  In 1921 he wrote 'Vida Americana' having been exposed to Marxism and the life of the rural poor.  The new government after Huerta planned to educate the masses through public art.  Siqueiros, Diego Rivera and Jose Orozco were hired to work together to create murals in prominent Mexico City buildings.
Siqueiros later went to Los Angeles to work with others on public murals.  Because of the politics they were painted over.  He was deported in 1932 for political activities but came back in 1936 to New York to work on the General Strike for Peace and the May Day Parade.  Then he went to Spain to fight in the Spanish Civil War against the fascists.  He was also involved in an attempted assassination of Trotsky. 
In 1936 Jackson Pollock was in NYC and attended a workshop of Siqueiros to help create floats for the May Day Parade, his only 'political' work.  That workshop, Siqueiros' Experimental Workshop, used modern devices such as airbrushes, spray guns and projectors.  It was here that Pollock was introduced to liquid paint and it was in the early 1940s that he started using it in his paint pouring works.
To be continued