Wood Chips
From the shores of Lake Superior (The Third Coast)
Seasonal unemployment is not usual for us who live here in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. Now, most of our workforce are finding themselves, at least for these months, sharing that very experience due to a crisis-driven and necessary “shelter in place” mandate of our Federal and state governments.
Years ago, in Oregon, I befriended a woman who spent time, as a child with her family, in a prisoner of war camp in Asia during World War II. She once recalled to me. “My parents were part of the diplomatic community. We weren’t mistreated physically, but forced to live with other foreigners as part of a small compound. Restricted behavior. Isolation. And what seemed to be endless down time, for months on end. One of the ways my mother helped our family cope was to bring out the finest dishes she could find, set the table and invite us to eat, with dignity and with a simple prayer of thanks, whatever meager rations were given us. It was that simple ritual, I know now, that carried our family through those times.”
We all could do well by heeding the advice from Katha Pollitt, columnist for the Nation Magazine. She writes about these unexpected days of isolation and sequestering facing us. “Wouldn’t it be great to come out of this time with something to show for it besides an encyclopedic knowledge of crap TV? Why not try to write or paint or draw something or read some challenging books………until life goes back go normal. If it ever does.” (The Nation, April 6, 2020)
Jon
The Cedar Tree Institute
“Wood Chips” is a series of brief reflections written by Jon Magnuson, Director of the Cedar Tree Institute.
