"Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less."- Marie Curie

May 10, 2020







"Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less."- Marie Curie

In the midst of this global pandemic, fear is a powerful force. It seems to permeate everything and is almost impossible to ignore especially if one spends any amount of time on social media or watching the news, which seems to revel in stirring up the worst fears of people. Politicians have made careers out of stoking those fears and at times like these it seems as though they may be right. 

 







After all with the current corona virus tolls standing at 1,305,742 confirmed cases and 73,566 deaths due to the virus in the United States, it would seem that we have plenty to be afraid of. Even locally the numbers spiked in the past couple of days, after more than a week with no new cases, an outbreak at an upper keys nursing home saw the Monroe County confirmed cases jump to 88. There are still 39 cases in Key West and the death toll locally stands at 3 still, though two suspicious deaths at the same nursing home are not included in that count as the testing was inconclusive.

* Photo by Jim Fossum

* Photo by Jim Fossum









It is indeed a very scary time, especially with the continued lack of anything resembling a decent or coordinated federal response and states, including Florida and Key West moving each day towards relaxing the restrictions and reopening the economy and businesses which seem like will logically and almost assuredly mean a coming spike in infections. Even here in Key West as restaurants and beaches and such have begun to reopen, we see and hear of instances where social distancing and other restrictions are not being complied with. 

Kathy







The owner of the Smoking Tuna restaurant and bar had to issue a public apology after the place was overrun and overcrowded the first Friday night they were open with crowds of people, most not wearing masks packed the place. This caused an outrage on social media and heavy criticism resulting in the apology but really it is hard to place blame on the restaurant when it was public not flowing the rules who really caused the issue.

 





Tensions are building between those who seem still terrified and willing to remain on lockdown and those seemingly willing to flaunt the rules and resume life as they knew it prior to the virus with little or no concern to themselves and others. It is a sad situation and one where common sense seems often to be in short supply. The fact is that I think there is a safe balance that can be achieved if people remain calm, learn more and pay attention to guidelines that are devised to keep people safe and let businesses get back to serving the public.

 







For our part, Kathy and I are not quite ready to rush back out and dine in a crowded restaurant, so we continue to order carry-out to support the industry and not place ourselves at unnecessary risk. We go places but wear masks and still avoid people, we follow the guidelines and watch the news with concern and sometimes anger, but hopefully not misplaced fear. To that end we continue to get out and enjoy our neighborhood and our island community by our regular walks and bike rides and have been spending more time than we ever have simply enjoying our home and our recently (thankfully) renovated and remodeled yard.

 







We also returned this week to Higg’s Beach and the Reynolds Street Pier to snorkel along the remains of the old pier when we had a just about perfect day of beautiful sunshine and calm waters that made for some wonderful nearshore snorkeling. There seemed to be more fish than we have ever seen there and the water was as clean and healthy looking as I can remember with excellent visibility.





 





We saw all manner of cool sea creatures and tons and tons of fish, which unfortunately included a number of invasive Lion Fish, which are beautiful but destructive invaders that have been spreading and causing havoc on the reefs here for the past 7 years or so. They were the first Lion Fish that I had ever seen there and sadly there were quite a few.







 



It is a beautiful and improving spot for checking out coral, reef fish and exploring the beauty of the nearshore waters in the Key West Marine Park that I worked to help create back when I worked at Reef Relief some twenty years ago. It is so nice that it is so close and so nice, especially on beautiful, clear afternoons like the one we had this week. Swimming along looking at the beauty of the natural underwater world it is easy to forget the chaos and uncertainty that fills our daily lives as the pandemic continues. It was a wonderful diversion and one that we are fortunate to be able to experience during such troubling times.