Viruses are Not Punishment

A friend of mine mentioned a comment a coworker made. I share this not to co-opt their story but to note a thing I expect we are all going to face. 

A co-worker commented they were low on leave because they had to quarantine when my friend got sick. 

Now it's possible they meant it the way you refer to lots of things. Like I am out of bread because I ate it all yesterday. 

It is human nature to try to dive in to find errors in what people who got sick did, so that we can feel assured that we would never do the thing that they did and therefore we will be safe.

As someone who has been wearing face coverings everywhere for months, upping the hand washing, limiting people interactions, and turning down offers to visit both family and friends, I get it. I am working hard to do everything I can to keep myself well, and also those I interact with as safe as I can.

But I also recognize it's an imperfect plan. The virus itself does not care how many masks I own, what song I sang while washing my hands, or how often I sanitized my phone. The virus is going to infect when and where it can. I will not get bonus points for the days I didn't leave my apartment. If I get it, I certainly want to be able to provide a good accounting of my movements to the appropriate people. 

But my contracting an infectious virus will mean simply that a virus whose sole purpose is to snack on humans got me. It will not mean I am or was less good than those who are uninfected. And yes, I know that there are folks out there taking less precautions than me, willingly and unwillingly. The virus does not care. It's going to get the people it can. Some of them will be making their first tiny exception. Some won't. The virus does not care. 

And, the reality is this. Crappy leave and sick day policies are neither the fault of the virus or the folks who contracted it and possibly exposed you. In fact, if I had to guess, I would suggest that crappy leave and sick day policies are part of why we're going to see infections continue. Here in DC small businesses are only required to offer two sick days for the year. Many teachers I know get very few sick days, because schools recognize so many holidays. So why would you need more? So we can tell people to skip work if they feel sick, but we aren't backing that up with policy. 

And I have to tell you, my last company mostly believed sick meant you checked your email only four times that day. 

So, all of this is to say, this pandemic is revealing and exacerbating some huge flaws in our society. That is barely the fault of the virus. It is not the fault of those who are sick. 

Three Interesting Things

1. It appears some jewelers are seeing a surge in engagement ring purchases.  

2. NPR Life Kit has some suggestions, with illustrative comic, of handling COVID 19 related conundrums. 

3. Rick Steve's wrote about the possibility of new discoveries even while at home. 

RWA and Other Writers Groups - What is This Health Insurance Stuff

As you may be aware, I have worked in health care administration.  I am obviously not anyone's personal health care subject matter expert, but here's some information that I think might be clarifying.  

RWA announced here, that it and various other book industry groups have signed with LIG solutions to provide health care options to members.  They also have a FAQ here. I am going to try to answer some questions I think may be less clear.  

-Folks who have fiction writing as a day job are generally considered sole proprietors of their business.  Sole proprietors are not allowed to team up and get group insurance rates for reasons that probably don't matter so much, they just aren't.  If you and your writing business operate as a larger business type, the rules are a little different and so association health plans might be on the table for you.  

-This only helps folks who live in the US.  

-These are still going to be plans available through your state or federal marketplace.  There are a couple of things that will then follow from this.  

+ If you have access to a plan through an employer, depending on the size and negotiating power of said employer, the employer sponsored plan is likely to be cheaper than any individual plan out there.  Not always, but often.  

+ If you, like me, enjoy sifting through multiple plans, or have a good idea of what kind of plan you want, then you may prefer to do your own research.

+ If you really wish you or a trusted friend liked sifting through multiple plans to figure out options, while the LIG person may not be your friend, they are a useful resource for such research.  Especially if terms like PPO, POS, and  HMO make you cross eyed.  

+ Because these plans are essentially out there already, your access to the writer's organization is just facilitating your access to the consultant, not the plan itself.  

Conflicted Thoughts About Sports

I miss sports. I can only imagine how tough this has been for the athletes, for the office, stadium, and arena staff.

I know testing availability has gotten better but I have very mixed feelings about prioritizing getting sports back in session instead of say schools. 

I wrote a letter expressing my concerns about librarians where libraries are open and almost all the issues with libraries apply to sports. 

I am pleased the various players unions negotiated new terms for this season including easy opt out. But I don't know that the folks who clean the stadiums, who staff the cameras, who wash the towels have been given the same opportunity. I hope so. 

And I confess that I feel like this is such an American approach, although I have seen comparisons to gladiators, that we have prioritized making stuff for us to watch over making it safer to shop and go to school. 

And I confess, I'm a little mad at how many tests sportsing safely will take. 

I may still watch. Which I know makes me part of the problem. (In the days when I still watched football, I had adopted a sports bar, using the convoluted logic that at least I wasn't adding to the ratings. Pandemic takes that option off the table.) 

I missed sports. But I remain a little conflicted about its return.

What Watching Chopped Will Teach You About Feedback

1. Sometimes you left an ingredient off or you screwed something up and you just have to sit there and take your lumps.

2. Sometimes they love one thing and hate another. 

3. Sometimes it seems like they wanted to critique something.  Like I loved the crunchiness but it was a little too crunchy.  

4. Sometimes they just wanted you to do something else. They will tell you you should have gone more Greek or should have picked a different cheese. You should have fried it instead of sauteed it. Sometimes they might be right. And look, the judge's feelings are valid. But sometimes the only important part of the feedback is they wanted something else.

5. Sometimes you made a technical error, and because they were watching they spotted the problem and have basically been waiting the whole round to tell you.

6. Sometimes they will start making the critique about you and not the food. They will tell you you didn't respect an ingredient or that you seemed too flustered or too nervous, or basically will talk too much about you and not the food. 

7. This is especially true if you are a young chef. Or a female chef. Obviously being critiqued is part of the show.  But sometimes, especially in a show that asks you to do something entirely different than the whole rest of your career, you have to accept that very little of what they can tell you will be useful going forward.