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JOY AND GRIEF

 I'll start with a lot of grief.  Did you notice that the World has passed 200 million COVID-19 cases?  

  • That's 2.6% of the global population.  
  • Note that our current pandemic shows a current total deaths of 4.3 million, significant, but only 0.06% of people on Planet earth.  Smallpox killed 500 million.
  • The odds for you being here so far because of this novel coronavirus are 1767 to 1.  
  • Not only don't I personally know anyone who died from this pandemic, I don't know anyone who even was infected.  
    • And I live in a building holding 200 seniors.
    • Only 2% of humans around the world live in elder-care facilities.  THIS GROUP WAS RESPONSIBLE FOR MORE THAN A THIRD OF ALL COVID-19 DEATHS.
  • A century ago, the H1N1 Pandemic, also known as the Spanish Flu, killed 50 million when the world population was 1.8 billion.
    • That's almost 3% of the world population.
    • It is said that the average life expectancy in the U.S. dropped by 12 years.
    • However, there are estimates that the world death number was 100 million, and if you do the accurate math, that calculates to 5.6% of the world population.  The odds that you would have survived would only be 18 to 1.
    • This H1N1 came from pigs.  COVID-19, or this novel coronavirus, came from bats.
    • Unlike this COVID-19 virus, that H1N1 virus mostly killed young adults, not the elderly
    • This is interesting regarding deaths from subsequent pandemics:
      • 1957:  H2N2 virus killed one million
      • 1968:  H3N2 virus killed one million
      • 2009:  H1N1 virus killed 0.3 million
        • Note that the Spanish Flu was caused by this H1N1 virus.
        • The number so far killed in the Covid-19 Pandemic is higher than the 2009 Pandemic.
    • Also interesting:
      • In 2013 there was the Avian Flu, which started in China with H7N9 as the virus.
        • Only 1568 infected, but 39% died.
      • This COVID-19 virus has a 2% mortality rate.
      • The MERS outbreak beginning in 2012 was from a coronavirus, with 2574 cases and a mortality of 34%.
      • The SARS coronavirus outbreak of 2002-4 only infected 8422 with a mortality of 11%.
      • Of course, these mortality rates do not count asymptomatic cases, which would well be around 50%, which is surmised to be the average for the seasonal flu.
      • The seasonal flu changes annually, and is association with some form of HxNy virus, and generally has a mortality rate of 0.1%.

If you're following what the U.S. Senate is doing about that $1 trillion infrastructure package, plus the $3.5 trillion goodwill list of Democrats for health, the environment and social programs, as I reported weeks ago:

  • Republicans need to show that they were cooperative with the Democrats on something, and so the tolerable $1 trillion legislation will be bipartisan and will pass. The sum is not all that enormous and the taxes of the rich will not be touched.  This should pass almost immediately.
  • The $3.5 trillion dream wish will also become law through something called reconciliation.  This one should also be approved before the August recess.  But if not, certainly when they return.

Well, the above should bring some joy, at least to Democrats, and the USA.

I woke up at 4:30 this morning, turned on the TV and for a few minutes watched Classic Arts Showcase.  This is about my favorite channel, and it was out of commission for a few months.  The Spectrum specialist came over, spent a few hours, and could not fix the fact that this viewing system in my bedroom could not get any audio from this station.  Okay for other channels, but not for this one.  Odd that my other cable box in the living room worked.  Well, suddenly, sounds.  This was a joyful moment.

Then came Canada, edging Sweden to win the women's soccer gold medal.  This is the joy you see when you win a gold medal at the Tokyo Summer Olympics:

xxxxx

Then, of course the grief to the losers.  I saw the Swedish team in sad solace, but haven't yet found the right photo.  Sheer despondency.

Maybe not as emotionally, but there is joy and grief at the end of every sporting event, in Tokyo and elsewhere, today and from the beginning of time.  I've been a sports spectator since I can remember.  At the age of ten it was the San Francisco Seals, with manager Lefty O'Doul.  I listened to them lose more than win, for during the years on radio with me as a fan, they never once won a minor league title.  Thus, a lot more grief than joy.

My McKinley High School sport teams all were nearly hopeless.  Perhaps only the tennis team, where I played third singles, had more wins than losses.

Then I went on to Stanford in 1958.  All our teams were just as bad, except for the baseball team, where for a while I served as student manager.

The point I'm getting to is that watching sports on TV results in a lot more grief than joy.  Say there are 10 teams in the league.  Chances are that, unless you happen to live in Alabama or South Carolina for Clemson, your football team will lose more than win, pitifully for many, and for some, eternity.

Why then are there so many sports fans?  At least in entertainment, one spends time of what you like and can avoid getting too depressed.  You can't do this in sports, because your team is where you live or go to school or once went there.

Well, here is an article that says:  Sports fans have higher self-esteem and are more satisfied with their lives (whether their teams win or lose).  There is something to this because being involved lowers levels of loneliness.  Research shows that sports fans are healthier.  No kidding.  Read that article.  It even goes on to say that if you are loyal to your team, you can cope with defeat.  Which, of course, helps you better cope with life, where things don't always go right.

I used to play baseball, football, basketball and golf fantasy sports.  I did well only in baseball because I had a system featuring relief pitchers and maximum team adjustments that seemed to work.  I thus today only do fantasy baseball.   I gravitated out of other sports.   This how I coped.  Today, my four Major League Baseball teams are ranked #1, #2, #3 and #4 in my four leagues with 7 other competitors, so just the fact that I am more ahead than behind is satisfactory for me.  Coming in first can sometimes result in money, so that's best, but doing better than other managers is satisfactory. enough  While winning a gold medal is joyful, a silver or bronze place is not grief.

Grief need not necessarily be matched with Joy.  I wrote an article for the Huffington Post the day my wife passed away.  Read Gratitude...Not Grief.  I borrowed this title from Thornton Wilder.

We all go through periods of joy and grief.  I'll end with The Bible.

-

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