Stay Safe, Be Kind

Americans, I don’t understand you. If your country or state asks you to stay home for the good of yourself and your fellow Americans, what’s the problem? While your doctors and nurses battle it out on the front lines, is it too much to ask you to stay home? Given you’ve recorded over 700,000 Covid-19 cases and almost 40,000 deaths, isn’t that reason enough to sit it out for a while and ensure you don’t inadvertantly add to the problems in an already stressed system?

Stay safe, stay home and be kind

pink_hollyhock_bumblebee_1000w

Click on photo to enlarge. Taken by Liz 22 March 2020
Hollyhock flower in Clyde, Central Otago, New Zealand

The Washington Post, April 19, 2020 at 8:57 p.m. GMT+12

Conservative groups across the United States organized protests to local restrictions this weekend, even as the country surpassed 700,000 confirmed cases of coronavirus on Saturday. […]

and this, among other points under ‘significant developments’ in the same article :

  • Aerial snapshots of people flocking to a reopened beach in Jacksonville, Fla., made waves on the Internet on Saturday, spurring #FloridaMorons to trend on Twitter.

This last point made me laugh but it’s pretty tragic given the current crisis.

Text and photo by Liz; Exploring Colour (2020)

44 thoughts on “Stay Safe, Be Kind”

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  2. Lovely capture, Liz. Love those soft pinks. I think we will be locked down for a while longer yet here, but at least I have a garden and can get out once a day for excercise. I think there will undoubtly be a lot of questions on how indivdual countries have handled the crisis and continue to handle the crisis after this has passed, but I beleive we should all stick together in times like this and not be divided. Stay safe and be well there, both you, Liz, and Nigel!

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    1. Thank you Pete, we saw some lovely hollyhocks that day. It’s surreal that our lives have changed so much in most countries! I’m glad you have your garden and you can still enjoy the joys of spring. Take care Pete!

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  3. Ms. Liz, I am an American and lately I do not understand what many of our populace are thinking either. The divisiveness that has overtaken the country is both frightening and appalling. However, I have to say that Michael Scandling has summarized it succinctly and eloquently. Your photograph once again takes me back to the better and happier times of my childhood days. Amongst the many other flowers that my Gram grew, every year there were Hollyhocks of various hues around the fenced outer perimeter of the smaller garden that for some reason was called “the truck patch”. That domain was for family use only as opposed to the vast fields of other crops that were used and marketed. Those Hollyhocks grew quite tall and I recall the fuzzy rough texture of the stalks and leaves. Gram loved all flowers and often said that “Flowers are God’s love made visible.” I think that those industrious little bees in your beautiful Hollyhock photo would agree! Be well and safe, you are always kind! Thank-you!

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    1. “Flowers are God’s love made visible.” I must go now and get on with other things but thank you for what you’ve shared and especially for this wonderful quote – LOVE the quote!! Much love to you Ellen xx

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    1. It amazes me that in the face of a crisis there’s still such a lot of deep political divisiveness, power plays, mis-management, poor communication, and wide-spread selfishness in America. Stay well and take care!

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  5. I think that Michael summed it up pretty well. I don’t have much to add except I think the encouragement by some to eschew education and show it little respect has a lot to do with the attitudes we see now from those who support our current president. Despite believing that, I am still astounded that so many people willfully follow his every word. I am just hoping that those who do not get Covid from these demonstrations will learn from those who do before we experience a second wave such as happened a century ago.

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    1. Scorning education is not good! It’s hard for me to comprehend how there’s lots of people who hang on his every word as mentioned by both Michael and yourself. Beggars belief. I’ve only looked at a couple of articles that mentioned the protests as I’m not following the story, but I was shocked that the placards in the photos of both stories featured biblical-type statements. (I was startled the first one referred to the mark of the beast and the other was based on ‘Let My People Go’ harking back to Moses demanding Pharaoh let the Israelites leave Egypt). It’s like, really crazy stuff. This toxic brew of religion and deeply-divisive politics in America is super-shocking for me, it’s truly really difficult for me to get my head around. As an outsider looking on, it feels like America is self-destructing. In NZ the Government is making a huge effort to support the people in our country at all levels of society and especially those who are most marginalised. The good of all of us depends on those people being properly provided for. Thanks for responding Steve and take care xx

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  7. Beautiful Hollyhock blossom, Liz. 🙂 Stay Safe, Be Smart should be the call from our leaders…we are clearly out of our depth and it is discouraging, disappointing, scary… that moron hashtag you mentioned is just one sad symptom.

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  9. Not all Americans, Liz, but way too many. This country was founded by people who broke out of tyranny and way too many found themselves smacked into the mold of those from whom they were fleeing. They became what they detested. It is an odd phenomenon that one tends to become what one detests if one is too overwhelmed by it for too long. They detested the meanness that victimized them and then adopted the role of the only thing that they saw that consistently won: meanness. These are the ones who feel they can do whatever the hell they want, and this “culture,“ if you want to call it that, is handed down through the generations. It is too much of a generality to say “they are ignorant“ but way too many of them are, and too many seem to revel in their ignorance. When they are presented with the facts, they call those facts “fake news.” Examining something closely takes effort, and it’s just too hard. Beer is much easier than thinking. It’s not all of us; it’s some of us. But some of us seems to amount to more than 40%. And that’s an awful lot. And that’s what you see. You do not see the decent ones of us, because we do not make headlines. Perhaps we are too decent. And by “too decent,” I don’t mean it nice, I mean ineffective. The current incumbent did not cause this. He is a product of this. But he does fan the flame. And ignites new ones. And enjoys it. He has always been insane but has kept it somewhat masked. Now he is going visibly crazy. And way too many people hang on his every mean word. Sobering Sunday soliloquy.

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    1. Kudos Michael! Thanks for investing time, thought and effort into crafting an illuminating response that’s also a great read. Apart from what you’ve shared I also appreciate how you’ve presented this (including the sober alliteration at the end). A big thank you for your contribution! Take care xx

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      1. Thank you, Liz. The only thing that’s really going to handle this is equal, excellent, education for all. And that’ll take generations. And a renewed sense of morals and ethics, and you don’t necessarily have to be religious to have that. Although in very many cases, it sure helps.

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        1. I agree education’s really important but Steve Gingold’s point about some not respecting education is a problem. We’ve had that kind of attitude in NZ when I was at school – but not so much now. More new people from overseas living here (and also NZers returning from overseas) seem to have changed things for the better. As an aside, during that time our cafes and restaurants vastly improved as well! BTW I’ve edited your original response according to your more recent editorial comments (which I’ve also deleted) so hopefully you like how it’s looking now. Thanks for the engaging discussion Michael!

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          1. Thank you very much, Liz. That’s why it’s important not just to have excellent education for all, but persist over generations, because that’s what it will take — for exactly the reason that you state.

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  12. Although I understand their frustration – I don’t want to locked in either! – where is the sense of community, where are the Christian values that the American right normally espouses? Selfishness appears to be alive and well in the US, even while thousands of their fellow citizens are dying, although it’s worth remembering that many millions of Americans are don’t subscribe to the ideas and behaviours reported in the Washington Post. But one thing is clear to me – now is not the time to party
    https://64reflections.home.blog/2020/04/08/this-is-not-the-time-to-party/
    Take care, be safe, stay healthy!

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    1. Thank you, I read your excellent article. I said to Ted that generosity of spirit seems to be lacking in certain parts of American Society and sadly the same applies in the UK too. While we have some of those here, they’re much more in the minority thank goodness. I think our NZ Government does a much better job of informing and supporting people at all levels of our society through this crisis so as a people we have much more unity. Later on today we find out if our lockdown will be taken down a level. Even if they do, it’ll still be pretty tight but a little loosening would be good!

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      1. Your Prime Minister gets a good press over here for her response to the crisis. Ours is recovering from the virus, while his ministers are currently defending his reputation from allegations that he was “missing in action” during February, when preparations to cope with the virus were gearing up. The ministers are also warning us that they will not ease the lockdown restrictions any time soon, and have agreed some key evidential tests to help identify when the time is right. Meanwhile the BBC reports this morning that the government is to provide an extra 30,000 mortuary places.
        Looks like you’ll be partying much sooner than me. Enjoy!

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  13. I don’t understand them either, Liz. I feel that I am extremely lucky to be able to stay at home. Others don’t have that luxury and are risking their health to keep everything going for the rest of us. The least we can do is respect that and stay at home rather than increasing the burden on health and key workers. Hope you and Nigel are staying healthy!

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    1. Fortunately we’re fine. Nigel had a stand at an agricultural 2-day show about 10 days before lockdown and we were scared he could have picked something up there – delegates from an international Hereford Cattle Conference had called by at the show and many of them subsequently turned out to have Covid. His stand wasn’t near the animals and happily he didn’t pick up the bug. Phew!

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        1. We didn’t talk about it much but I think it was there at the back of our minds and after time proved he hadn’t picked it up, then we mentioned our relief to each other!

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  14. We´re living in the age of stupidity, the era of populism. Maybe for this planet it would be the best we wipe out ourselves through egoism. Maybe mankind is the failing experiment of evolution.

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        1. Thank you. Today we will find out if we can go down to a slightly less restrictive level for our lock down. I hope we can! And I hope you’ve been ok. What is it like where you live?

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          1. Today, small shops (smaller than 800 sqaremetre) are allowed to re-open again. And we´ve never been locked away in Germany, only social contact had been restricted. Now, we´re starting again slowly, because the curve has flattened. We´ll see if it works.

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