From good company to Covid and Mac and Cheese

 

Colin taking a break from all my chores.

It’s been an intense two days. My oldest son, Colin, has been here to work on “boy chores,” my financial status and a trust, and cleaning up what he sees as messes on my computer. Okay, yes, I did have three iPads and an email account I haven’t looked at in years and other such eccentricities. Tonight, when I thought he was through, I closed out a bunch of windows so I could place my weekly grocery order with Central Market. Wrong thing to do. It brought forth great groans and moans. So I’m not sure what problems I will be left with when he leaves tomorrow. The work on the trust, however, has been fascinating—an interview with the lawyer who did Colin’s trust and that of his wife opened my eyes to a lot of financial quirks I had never thought about. The business end of the visit has been worthwhile and reassuring.

But I am, as always, overjoyed to have him here and enjoy his company. My way of showing it, of course, is to kill the fatted cat, so I had emailed him to ask if he wanted meatloaf or tamale pie. He chose meatloaf, and I worked hard to get it ready before a scheduled Zoom appointment last night. Timing was perfect, and meatloaf was ready when the call was over. But guess what got the raves? Not my meatloaf but Louella’s rice which Jordan threw together at the last minute. Tonight I fixed tamale pie with polenta. When Colin smelled the sauce, he said, “I’ve had this before,” and I agreed he probably had. Turns out he was not anticipating liking the polenta part but loved it and had a huge second helping. Then Jordan confessed she and Christian don’t really like polenta, but they eat it because I “fix it good.” My cooking ego has taken a bit of a bruising.

Yesterday I read an article that I think was by a faculty member at West Virginia University, where they are considering discontinuing all humanities courses. One line in his writing particularly struck me: “I am angry because we seem to be turning everything that celebrates our shared humanity into a business.” The attitude today is if it doesn’t make a profit, get rid of it. As an English major and occasional classroom teacher, I grieve for this in education. We will lose our common heritage, the ties that bind us together, if we lose art and history and literature and dance. I think it’s particularly scary as AI surges in use and misuse. Magazines are beset by submissions that are AI generated, novels are no doubt being written the same way. And I have read a lot about college faculty taking precautions to weed out AI-generated reports. If the world of Orwell’s 1984 is not to become a reality, we must embrace and support the humanities, not throw them aside.

It's a circuitous route but cutting out the humanities ultimately increases the power of the one percent, because it diminishes those who are more interested in creativity than profit. By eliminating the humanities, the way is left open for “business and entrepreneurship” to sweep the field.

I did not watch the Republican candidates debate this week, but the critiques I heard were all over the board, with some reassuring that we were hearing more traditional conservative voices than MAGA. But I was horrified when a local columnist, with whom I frequently disagree, called Ron DeSantis strong on education. There again, we’re back to wiping out the humanities which he has done in Florida with book banning and censorship. He who claims education is not about indoctrination, has managed to be the most indoctrinaire ever.

And the same concern, that profit overrules everything else, applies to environmental concerns. We need to fight the big corporations that are drilling and mining and shipping in areas that endanger the environment. I saw a meme today that said, “There is no profit on a dead planet.”

Moving right along, we are apparently being visited by a surge in a Covid virus that is a variant of omicron and is particularly resistant to vaccines. A new vaccine is being developed, and I will be among the first in line to get it. But I am aware we will fight the vaccine wars all over again with extremists on the right (led by Robert Kennedy, Jr). Those people with their flagrant disregard of science endanger the health of the rest of us. A friend was coming to dinner last week but emailed that she had been exposed. Reluctantly, I cancelled. If it’s going to take more isolation, I’m ready.

The good news I can think of tonight is that there is a new restaurant chain with a strange but intriguing name: I Heart Mac & Cheese. Yep, they have varieites of Mac & Cheese (lobster always intrigues me) and several kinds of grilled cheese. The menu fascinates me, mostly because I’m a cheese fan, but it presents an old dilemma to someone like me who cooks: why get so excited about a new chain when it features things you can easily fix at home? On the other hand, would you fix a grilled cheese with pulled pork, ham, Swiss cheese, and dill pickle? I don’t think so.

Stay cool everyone, and cross your fingers that relief is in sight.

PS This was my Friday night blog but between Colin, me, and changing default emails, I lost the ability to post to the blog. Another intense computer session, and I'm back. Colin is headed home to Tomball, so if I find more problems, I'm out of luck!