QUARANTINE BLOG # 201

October 17, 2020

The Quarantine Blog is coming to you this morning from the beautiful Aragon Ballroom high atop the Byline Bank Building in beautiful downtown Chicago.  Well, not really – we are on the second floor of the beautiful, scientifically cleaned and sterilized Hampton Inn just off of I-95 at Wilson North Carolina – but way back when we listened to our entertainment on an old fashioned device called a radio and did not stare at it on a 70 inch television, Big Bands featuring such names as Duke Ellington, Count Basie, and Kay Kyser broadcast from the Aragon with an introduction similar to that first sentence above.  Today it offers grunge, punk, and funk rock.  Oh for the days when it really was music and people touched when they danced!

👉  On Wednesday we talked about Gal Gadot and her newly cast roll as Cleopatra, and the knee-jerk reaction that protested an Israeli portraying an Egyptian queen.  Following the announcement that she will play Cleopatra in a new movie, social media erupted in a bitter battle between advocates for greater diversity in film, and opponents of what is perceived as political correctness gone mad.  Well, today there’s more to the story.  Ariel David, writing for Haaretz.com says, “DNA analysis has shown that the closest relatives of ancient Egyptians are today’s Levantines, so Israeli Gal Gadot as Cleopatra is a pretty good match.”  I looked it up: Levantines come from the Levant, the region centered around modern Syria, Israel, Lebanon, the Palestinian territories, and Jordan.  If the archaeologists are correct, Gal Gadot (cliche alert) checks all of the boxes.

👉  According to Travel and Leisure Curaçao is reopening its borders to Americans – but only if they’re from New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut.  Okay, this is crazy from so many directions.  Now don’t misunderstand.  Curaçao is one of my favorite Caribbean islands (if you missed it, check out QB 138, from August 15).  There is history galore to explore.  Beautiful architecture.  Great weather.  Super places to eat.  But – and after that intro you knew there had to be a but – the CDC recommends travelers avoid all nonessential international travel to Curaçao.  COVID-19 risk in Curaçao is the highest level – Level 3.  Within the last 14 days, new cases of COVID-19 in Curaçao increased.  And to balance that, COVID-19 cases have increased over the 3 selected states over the last week.  This sounds like the proverbial perfect storm. 

👉  One of my favorite authors is Bill Bryson.  I mentioned his book The Body in QB 66 on June 4.  But that’s not the only Bryson you should read.  Check out (and I’ve read them all): “Neither Here nor There: Travels in Europe,” “Made in America: An Informal History of the English Language in the United States,” “In a Sunburned Country,” “A Short History of Nearly Everything,” “The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid: Travels through my Childhood,” “One Summer: America 1927,” “At Home: A Short History of Private Life,” and “A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail.”  Read “A Walk in the Woods” for a good laugh out loud time, and then watch the movie with Robert Redford and Nick Nolte for more laughs.

There are more Bryson books, but I bring him up today, because at age 68, he has announced his retirement.  Bryson said: “I would quite like to spend the part that is left to me doing all the things I’ve not been able to do.  Like enjoying my family, I have masses of grandchildren – he and his wife, Cynthia, have 10 – and I would love to spend more time with them just down on the floor.”  Happy retirement Bill.  I’ll be re-reading!

👉  In preparation for some of my cruise talks under the category “The Creators” I’ve studied art work stolen from Jewish families – and other persecuted people – by the Nazis.  The fate of one of the most incredible pieces, “The Lady in Gold,” is told in a great book and movie by the same name.  On Thursday, another painting, “Winter,” was returned to the family from whom it was stolen.  A painting of two young, 19th century skaters that was looted by Nazis from a Jewish family in 1933 and recently discovered at a small museum in upstate New York.  It was returned after 87 years.  The painting by American artist Gari Melchers was part of a cache of more than 1,000 pieces of art and artifacts seized from the Mosse family, prominent and well-off Jewish residents of Berlin who became early targets of the Nazi Party.  

“The Mosse family lost nearly everything because they were Jews.  But they did not lose hope,” acting U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of New York Antoinette Bacon said at a repatriation ceremony at the Albany FBI office.  “While this certainly does not take away the pain the that the Mosses endured, I hope it provides the family with some measure of justice.”

👉  This one is from our “You Can’t Make This Stuff Up” Department.  A Michigan home owner’s apparent joke showing disdain for voting by mail is no laughing matter for one election official.  The residents put a toilet on their lawn with a sign that says, “Place mail in ballots here.”  Barb Byrum, the Democratic clerk of Ingham County, filed a complaint with police over the display, saying it could mislead people who aren’t familiar with the voting system.  “It is a felony to take illegal possession of an absentee ballot.  Elections in this country are to be taken seriously and there are many people who are voting by mail for the first time this election,” Byrum said.  But there was no evidence of an intent to violate Michigan law, said the office of county prosecutor Carol Siemon, also a Democrat.  “Instead, this seemed to be an effort to make a humorous political statement,” the statement said.  The complaint was flushed.

👉  As He Is, So Are We, In This World

What is the first response of most people when they see someone who is hurting? Isn’t it usually, “I don’t want to get involved.”

A team of psychologists set out to test an interesting hypothesis: the more people who witness an incident, a tragedy, or an accident, the less likely anyone is to help. 

To test their idea, they used four groups of children, ages 6 to 10, and of various races.  In four cities, New York City, Chicago, Boston, and Philadelphia, the children were stationed on the sidewalks.  Each child, with tears in his eyes, would stop a passerby and say, “I am lost.  Will you help me find my Mommy?”  Then the child would hand the stranger a card with a telephone number to call the parent.

Now, who wouldn’t stop to help a lost child?  Well, in Chicago, one-third of those approached would not help. The number rose to one-half in New York and Boston, and to two-thirds, who would not help a lost child, in Philadelphia, the “City of Brotherly Love,” the city that would boo Santa in the Christmas parade.  An average of 46 percent of the people approached would not help.

Then they took the same children into 12 small towns outside of the major metropolitan areas they had just surveyed and set up the same scenario.  In those small towns 72 percent were willing to help.  Only 28 percent refused.

The psychologists proved their point.  The more people who could become involved, the fewer who actually will.  Reading that study, I wondered to myself, “How many of those people who refused to help claimed to be Christians?”

A cynic once remarked, “I wish there was a law forcing Christians to all wear bright red hats (this was in the mid-1990s before MAGA hats).  That way we would have no trouble identifying them.  They talk a good game, but they usually live quite differently from their talk.”

Paul told the Galatians, “Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ” (Galatians 6:2).

John wrote, “As Jesus is, so are we, in this world” (1 John 4:17).

If you claim to be a believer in Jesus Christ, ask yourself, would Jesus refuse to help a lost child?  If He would, then so may you.  Would Jesus refuse to reach out to a person attempting to break free of a life-destroying habit?  If He would, then so may you.  If Jesus would help, and you know He will, then as long as you claim His name – bright red hat, or not – you must help.  Because of the grace that saved you, you are under obligation.  As He is, so are we, in this world.  How is He?  Are you that way?

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