– THE COLLECTION –
Vintage Perspective
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Looking at the World with New Eyes
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A note from Leslie
This issue is more packed than usual. I included more links because most of us who are not fighting the virus directly have more time to read or watch, if only because we aren't losing time to transit. I had no trouble finding crossovers this month, either. Among the thin silver linings, Coronavirus seems to have a depolarizing effect and we have bigger concerns than national politics. But mostly, there is much more to say — and that about things that we had pushed aside or forgotten.
My favorite quick comment to come out of this Life in the Time of Corona is a tweet by Laurie Penny: "Quarantine day 6, and we're all: quietly reading improving books, doing crafts with the three people we are allowed to see till summer, wondering if a single cough means imminent death, and thinking almost constantly about sex. I suddenly understand Jane Austen novels much better." Precisely. How we are living now, time-wise and community-wise, is much closer to how upper classes lived until probably the end of World War II. It is old ways that feel new. It is vintage perspective, if you will.
I wonder what we might "remember" about those old ways. I am closely watching, and even rooting for, pulls toward hybrid school and work. (In the homeschool world, a hybrid school model combines at home instruction and going to a brick and mortar school.) Models for each have been proposed, tried, and failed before, but I suspect we'd need synchronized change in work and school to have a shot a success. Synchronicity is possible now.
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Economic Costs Are Human Costs by Esther O'Reilly 🔀
A both sides look at the economy vs protective lockdown debate
Trump Backs Down From Coronavirus Quarantine for New York, Issuing CDC Travel Advisory Instead by Sarah Rumpf 🦠
This one will be old news by the time this email arrives, but I did not link to it for the news. I linked to it as an example of civics lessons by Corona. Prominent among those lessons: the federal government needs Constitutional permission to act while state governments can act unless there is a legal prohibition against the act they want to do. In legalese,, state governments have presumed powers. The federal government has enumerated powers. We have largely forgotten because the enumerated powers have been interspersed so broadly (the Commerce Clause in particular) that it feels like the federal government has the presumed powers. Nope. State and local governments have more day to day power over people, and we should pay more attention to them.
The end is now the beginning by Susan Vollenweider ⏳
This is probably a crossover link. I don't know much about Susan outside of The History Chicks podcast (which is one of my all time favorites) but this final column about changes and publishing hit me too closely not to include.
Coronavirus isolation is challenging my sobriety like no vacation ever has by Destiny Herndon-De La Rosa 🙎🏻♀️
Hidden Struggles in the Age of Coronavirus I
Out of Sight: Texas Child Abuse May Be on the Rise by Emma Platoff 👁
Hidden Struggles in the Age of Coronavirus II
There's a Big Difference Between Child Poverty and Neglect by Naomi Schaefer Riley 🪑
Disconnected Young People Need Intensive Care to Get Their Lives Back on Track by Anne Kim 👥
Longtime readers may have noticed, or maybe it is just me when I build these lists, but sometimes one site really rocks a subject. This time it’s IWF, Independent Women’s Forum. They are all over changes wrought by Corona isolation. Among others they have:
10 Work From Home Hacks by Kelsey Bolar 🤹♀️
Coronavirus and the Future of Work by Charlotte Hays 📇
The Plague, Coronavirus, and Martin Luther by Erin Hawley 🏘
What Martin Luther Teaches Us About Coronavirus by Emmy Yang ✝️
Luther is famous for many things, of course, but one of his lesser known acts was to stay and care for neighbors during a resurgence of the bubonic plague. Thus, he's getting talked about today.
RIP Rosie the Riveter. Obituary for Rosalind P. Walter by Stephanie Toone 💪
Video Games are Distance Learning, Too by Lenore Skenazy 🎮
It sounds wrong, I know. But I don't think it is. I learned this lesson about 5 years ago when I peeked in on my four kids and a mess of their friends lounging in one of the kids’ rooms on a rainy afternoon playing the Game of Life on their iPads. The scene played out exactly as I remembered board games as a child, save everyone had their own copy of the board, none of which would get scattered by a curious dog or toddler sibling. Ditto Minecraft. Later came the virtual playdates with the headsets.
Portrait of an American city at the dawn of a pandemic by Salena Zito 🌇
Home-Based Businesses Are Coming by Olivia Gonzalez and Nolan Gray 🏠
Slack's Staying Power by Annie Gaus 🛫
I did not know of Annie Gaus before finding her Corona and tech series of articles, but I will follow her work now as I am quite curious about how the work world, and the school world for that matter, have been changed by The Great Isolation. I suspect the changes have already been written. We simply haven't read the document yet.
How Bernie's 2020 Struggles Can Be Explained by 2016 by Sarah Isgur 🗳
Oh yeah, it's an election year still. Who remembers that at this point? I do agree with Sarah here. Back in 2016 I didn't think the distaste she discusses was bad enough to get Trump into office, but it was more than enough. So yes, Dems, most of us really, may have learned the wrong lessons from 2016. Oh, and while we are on politics, all of the 'I see more Liz Mairs" analysis from last month's edition of this email was Bernie Sanders specific. I'd say it is a completely different race with Biden as the Democratic nominee, but that understates how it is really a different race with the economy's dive.
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This episode of Ericka Andersen's Worth Your Time podcast features Gracy Olmstead. From Ericka's intro "[Gracy] writes about culture, faith, politics, policy, farming, food and more — and does so with a voice all her own. Her pieces are often focused on compromise, human dignity and life and she has a knack for luring in both sides of an issue and helping them hear one another." Gracy also has a newish newsletter mostly about homelife and farming. Here is the latest issue of Granola.
In Ellen Troxclair's podcast, Step Up, she talks with women in politics for their stories on how they got there. Here she interviews Alice Marie Johnson. If the name sounds familiar, Johnson was featured in President Trump's State of the Union address. This is her story.
What I Learned When My Husband Got Coronavirus is a crossover story from Jessica Lustig for the NYT's recorded articles features.
Sarah Isgur co-hosts Advisory Opinions with David French and here they talk with a federal bankruptcy judge about trends since Coronavirus came to the US. (Spoiler: the news is ominous.)
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The Enchanted Hour: The Miraculous Power of Reading Aloud in a Time of Distraction by Meghan Cox Gurdon
It's been out of a year, but I think it is more timely now. We have fewer distractions. When better to put her ideas to the test?
Unveiled by Yasmine Mohammed
The book is billed as "Ayaan Hirsi Ali's Infidel meets The Handmaid's Tale." Note too, the instructions in case you cannot access the book in your country. That alone is telling.
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A Homeschooling Twitter Tip
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First, as a Billy Joel fan myself, one who memorized and researched the Fire song on my own, I can relate. Two, this is relevant to our life today. With the Billy Joel lesson in the back of my mind, I've gotten lots of homeschooling milage out of pop culture history or science productions like Warehouse 13, Good Eats, The Crown, and Timeless. They don't even have to be perfectly accurate. They simply must be intriguing to my children. Once the kids are in, the questions come. Pauses, discussions, and internet searches begin.
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Candace Owens interviews a friend of mine, actually, Charles Blain on prison reform.
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Naomi Schaefer Riley hosts a panel discussion on Foster Care and Prison: Connecting the (right) dots.
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The Collection is curated by Leslie Loftis as an extracurricular labor of love. Leslie also teaches life administration, as in the stuff that we do not notice until it does not get done. Those podcasts and videos may be found at lifeadministration.com.
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Banner photo from The Jane Austen Guide to Social Distancing by Meghan O’Keefe
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