Buy Nothing online group redistributes goods locally

 

Front porch items deposited with names of recipients attached

Somehow related to the success of the "Nextdoor" email franchise that invites local residents to pool questions, answers, observations, complaints, friendly reminders, and sometimes rants, someone in this neighborhood of Grand Rapids, Michigan created "Buy Nothing" as a way for local residents to announce things being given away at no cost. Whereas Nextdoor is national or international and includes a commercial sponsorship (paid advertising) layer, Buy Nothing seems to have no reference to gainful private enterprise. Perhaps "social capital" does accrue to the most frequent commenters and givers-away of unwanted gear and clothing, extra batches of edibles, and so on. In any case, the rapid pace of posting items requested or offered and subsequent pick-up by the person who is selected by the owner is a good way to redistribute material goods directly, mediated only by the electrons flitting onto Internet-connected devices. When several responses come in for a particular item, the owner must decide whom to choose; sometimes by first-come, first-served logic, or else by lottery (random choice). But other times it is based on the case made for why the person is the most eligible.

H.A.B.U. (Highest and Best Use) of the disused freebies is achieved by this simple and valuable activity between local residents who otherwise do not know one another, despite living on the same street or in the same district neighborhood association within the larger city boundaries. Rather than putting something with value still remaining into the solid-waste stream bound for "long term storage" in a sanitary landfill, this method of redistribution finds a new owner to make use of the thing. As a by-product of the flurry of activity with residents picking up things from strangers' porches and others bagging up things with a name tag to leave on their own porch, a little of the social fabric is strengthened. For those on a tight budget this kind of "yard sale prices on demand" (put out a call for an item that is seldom or never used anymore and see if there is one to borrow or to get at no cost) is a boon. Equally for those eager to clear their cupboards, basement or attic or garage clutter, or wanting to empty a rented storage unit, this service is handy.

Whereas some societies are accustomed to scavenging perfectly good items discarded in junkyards or roadsides, in other (materially wealthy) societies there is some degree of social pressure to buy new things and to avoid used ones. In USA around the time of the Great Depression (1929 onward) and to a lesser extent during the Great Recession (2008 onward), necessity led more and more people to "make a virtue of necessity" and swallow any pride about always buying new. Instead they began to visit thrift shops, yard sales, estate sales, and word-of-mouth asking around to borrow or take possession of unused, unwanted things from others. Now due to the forced under- and unemployment of so many in USA due to the corona Trump virus the unconsumerism and rising concern about landfill waste is leading more city residents to give and take via the online hyper-local system of Buy Nothing. For the ancient brainstem legacy of hunter-gatherer ancestors, there is a certain thrill in finding ways to dispose of unwanted things; of obtaining things, and indeed lending a helping hand to others in the area who one does not personally know.

So the next time you see someone approach a porch and come away with a parcel, it may not be a Fedex or Amazon porch pirate. Instead, it could be the person named on the package being given away via the Buy Nothing service.

Rethinking "back to normal" when Covid-19 dwindles

At all levels of governance, United Nations, USA President Biden, many governors among the 50 USA states and perhaps among the territories, as well as from the mouths of (big city) mayors there is recognition of value in and pledging to "build back better" with a minimum wage that lifts a worker with a family above the statutory annual income poverty line (definition). Examples are the policing habits and mandatory sentencing (social justice), higher education and health care as a basic right (regardless of ability to pay), unequal access to clean air and water (environmental justice), and obstacles to building generational wealth ---burdens touching all lives, but proportionally more costly for those starting with fewest financial, informational, and social resources to drawn upon. In other words, using pre-Covid standards as the benchmark for restoring a state of 'normal' is not sufficient, not desireable, and not right.

 

In the video clip the carillon that plays at noon and again at 6 p.m. on weekdays at this church evokes many things about the pre-pandemic routines of the week that formerly comprised normal, proper, and generally pleasing parts of the social landscape. For example, the church annual cycle of events was one set of calendar markers that structured many residents' year. Dining out, vacation or business travel, and the many functions of consumer society all filled people's imaginations, budgets, and schedules. Focusing on the front end of those processes --- choosing what to eat, where to go, what to buy for self or as a gift for others --- there used to be an element of hunter/gatherer thrill of the chase: spotting the thing to satisfy one's goal. To complete the circuit from idea to pursuit to purchase to consumption there used to be a set of conditions (pre-coronavirus) that were taken for granted and now (during the pandemic) have been either prohibited, ill-advised, or otherwise abandoned. There was the fuel burned in driving from retail place to place (in Covid times substituted to some extent by online browsing, wishlists, and deliveries). There was the recycle or landfill burden of transport packaging and retail boxing that is discarded. And psychologically there was the imaginary land of endless purchase, use, disposal; as if one's individual indiscretions and feelings of wanting, deserving, or feeling obligated to go out and get something was disconnected from carbon footprint, energy consumption, food waste, and all the other components adding up to the USA 5% of the world's humans using up 20 or 25% of the planet's energy.

So what might this "build back better" look like? The list of issues, above, touches on some examples that may be engaged with seriously to find local expressions for attaining the goals and addressing wrongs of present and future (maybe even compensating for past wrongs, too). But from the experiential level of individual "life chances" or dreams and realities of people in all points along the social and economic status spectrum there will be other changes to look for; things that translate from the slogan level to the lived-in level.

For the sake of this argument and skipping over all the conflicts, obstacles, excuses, and special interest lobbying, suppose that minimum wage does go up and working hours go down. That could lead to more consumer activity - in direct contradiction to the Green Economy recognition that the carbon footprint must be reversed for this generation and for the burgeoning human populations on all continents that are yet to come. Not reining in the consuming of fossil fuels only worsens the extreme weather, expands the destruction of habitat --including water and air for humans, too--, and accelerates the extinction of diverse plants and animals of air, land, and sea (and non-salty waters, too). So from the experiential, first-person point-of-view, better laws and enforcement, along with income levels improving, results in individuals having greater social, economic, and aspirational reserves to face good times and bad, normal life and the times of disaster from natural source or human cause.

Supposing, further, that big consumers of the G-20 societies where much of the global energy and resources are used up (not just to survive, but for discretionary uses) were now to cultivate a mindset of conserving water, air, species, and material wealth (make it last, right to repair, barter and down-cycling before recycling). Then the limited resources and the renewable resources will be consumed at their HABU (highest and best use), rather than to be squandered in unsystematic, careless ways. At the personal level as well as at the organizational scale this new mentality would translate into amplified mindfulness about disposition of resource and its final disposal, and before that, careful use of the things one is in charge of using. Much more of the economy's services and products, and leisure pursuits will leverage the savings of time, knowledge/expertise, and fuel by using Internet for communication and engagement in a subject virtually instead of in-person, face to face.

Finally, if it were so that health care and higher/further education were guaranteed rights obtained in one's citizenship and in one's active contribution to society (paid or unpaid work, building rather than breaking the social fabric), then people from all walks of life could imagine bigger and better futures for self and others. The possibility of pursuing one's dreams would be actually within reach, unhindered by matters of net worth or generational wealth/poverty and social capital in the names and interpersonal debts and credits among the constellation of one's own contacts.

Taken all together, "building back better" instead of "back to normal" is exciting to think about. Some parts may actually take initial or even final form, but other elements will remain talking points to aspire to in the next generation of people participating in "the art of the possible," as the political arena has been characterized over the years.

Spending time in the woods on the North Country Trail

 

[near the Rogue River state game area, Kent Co., Michigan]

On this Tuesday afternoon on February 2, there were Nordic ski tracks and boot-prints from perhaps 8 or 10 people since the most recent snowfall 5 days earlier. But on the two miles of the trail north and then going back to the parking area on Red Pine Road, just north of 18 Mile Road, there was no one else here. Most of the time in daylight, and probably all of the time in nighttime, the thousands of miles of North Country Trail (NCT) are undisturbed by people. This video clip illustrates the brief passage of a hiker, followed by abiding quiet for the rest of the time.

In recent years people around the world have recorded the ordinary sounds of forests they visit, https://timberfestival.org.uk/soundsoftheforest-soundmap/ And the practice of "forest bathing" (a complementary form of recreation or therapy to sunbathing), translated from the Japanese term (ShinYoku), also has attracted people into the forests both named and large along with others unnamed and small.

People's experiences of this habitat vary not just by season and the day's weather, but also with their relative depth of knowledge and familiarity with hiking and their personal limits, preferences, and interests. Some go on a segment of a long-distance (national) trail to add a notch to their walking stick. Others go at a quick pace for exercise mainly, but incidentally for the change of setting that it offers to  treadmill exercise. A few may be naturalists keen on observing plant or animal life as a refreshing change to engaging in human society. Still others may commune with nature and place value on abiding under the leafy canopy, not in a hurry to get to some predefined destination. Potentially, there are professional "gatherers" of wild mushrooms and other materials, too. So the relationships between people and hiking trails and the surrounding meadows, fields, streams, and forests are diverse. Turning away from the analytical parsing of "types," the empirical situation may well compound more than one type of relationship or motive among those who pass along the way. And the same person may shift their dominant motivation as they grow older or suffer serious or limiting health effects, too. So a composite picture of the people and the forest along this section of the NCT shows people of various ages, experience levels, and combinations of motivation and amount of interest in engaging and knowing the habitat and its many life forms.

In summary, those who show up at the parking area for a day-hike, or ones passing through on a multi-day trek form a subset of the wider population. During the pandemic Trump virus, outdoor pursuits have given coronavirus-chary people an outlet for their energy and attention as an alternative to quarantining or staring at Internet screens. But still there are relatively few people who go beyond a city or county park to walk on the NCT or another long-distance trail. Those who do hike, especially in bad weather (cold, wet, dark) seem to be respectful in their relationship to the habitat. Even if not card-carrying members of a conservation lobby or organization, they do seem to value the land and the life that goes on there largely unconcerned with human events in the world.

_____________________________
See also this view of one of the creeks that form the river's headwaters, https://archive.org/details/rogueriver2021headwaters

 

Notes from polling precinct 3 November 2020 USA General Election

 

scenes early morning and later afternoon in Grand Rapids, Michigan 49505

Pandemic and relatively recent voting law changes in this state to allow "no reason absentee voting" resulted in something like 3 million ballots around Michigan's 83 counties being voted by mail, drop off at the respective county clerk office or its designated dropbox(es), or in some cases "early voting" at the counter of the clerk's office. So even after the in-person, conventional voting period from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. ended and each of the 76 precincts in the city of Grand Rapids transmitted their results electronically (and by paper and duplicating SD card delivery to the tabulating headquarters), still the results could not be concluded while the many mail-in and absentee votes were being tabulated by an army of workers. While states like Florida allowed early votes to be processed in the days ahead of the precinct in-person voting, the Republican-controlled legislation in Michigan refused to allow any processing ahead of time with the exception of jurisdictions of 25,000 or more residents. In that case the outer envelope could be opened 24 hours before the voting day.

These photos show a few of the scenes at a 1928 neighborhood elementary school vacated by the pandemic so that children are relegated to online connection to teachers and peers. The day begins with crews delivering the voting equipment the day before and then the poll worker chairperson opening the door to fellow workers at 5:45 a.m. to begin setting up the gymnasium polling place starting at 6 a.m. and then declaring "The polling place is now open" at 7:00 a.m. In this case about 5 voters keen to be at the head of the line had arrived a hour before that official start time. But very soon the line ran from the first station (writing name, address, date of birth) for application to vote, all along the hallway and out the door, over the sidewalk leading the roadside and all along that streetside sidewalk for a total length of perhaps 80-90 yards.

There are 2594 voters in this precinct (maximum of 2999 per precinct by law): on this day at this precinct 763 voted in person, of which 1 man did not accept the mask offered him; another had a health condition precluding mask-wearing. All others waited in mask, mostly silently. Some people engaged with their smartphone in texting, reading, gaming, or with earbuds connected for music, recorded book, news, or podcast. The first 2 hours were long, long, long lines socially spaced, requiring about 90 minutes from lining up to leaving the polling place. By noon there was just a 10-minute wait thanks to a helpful "challenger" (party-appointed and registered observer) who called in 6 cardboard booths to supplement the 7 that had been assigned. From noon to 8 p.m. things faded away until just 200 or so arrived in dribs and drabs in those final 6-7 hours. Impressionistically, it seemed like many women under the age of 35 showed up in person and a certain proportion of retired people, too. One of the young women sported a Trump-branded face mask, which is disallowed on the polling premises. So she was politely asked to reverse it, which she did. The seven assigned poll workers never flagged during the 14 hours. When all was tidied up and signatures showing full-day work, certifying all steps fulfilled, and so on, then the chairperson and 1 of the others made the drive downtown to the headquarters to deliver the data and supplies. So their day was even longer than for the others.

In the 2016 vote when there was no pandemic and before Michigan's "no reason absentee" voting, the election DJ Trump brought 800+ voters to this same precinct in person. For the 2020 General Election maybe half the votes (still being counted at DeVos Hall downtown) were early or dropbox or mailed in. So the total number of ballots seems to be more than in 2016. For poll workers 14 hours makes for a long day. When greeted or directed to the entry door, several voters remarked "this is my first time to vote." In some ways the shiny hallway, silent lines, solemn context stirred by in the frenzy of mass media and online-targeted user campaign advertising contributed to the whole experience being quasi-religious or civic ritualistic.

Intersections of religion and government of society

A week or two before the November 3, 2020 General Election in USA

 

Most yard signs in the month or two before a national election are concerned with supporting one party or the other, with a few in support of neither Republican or Democratic parties and instead promoting the names and websites of third-party candidates such as Libertarians, Green Party, and so on. And for the Trump versus Biden campaign season, a few pun-worthy signs use text or visual jokes to make the point in support of one side or the other: Biden spelled "Bye Don" (as in Donald J. Trump), or the one showing a swoosh of dyed orangey-blonde hair to stand for Trump in which the word NOPE is spelled out in large letters and the "O" stands for the head of the President and the colored swoosh adorns the top to stand for trademark hair. A variation on this negation of Trump substitutes NOPE with NAH.

This photo, though, takes a completely different approach. It does not identify either the candidate for the Democratic Party or the Republican one. Instead it uses the symbol-colors of both main parties (red =Republican; blue =Democratic), which coincidentally signal the USA national flag (rectangular and with red, white, and blue as bars and a sprinkling of stars, as well). The this sign puts forward the candidate that rises above either Biden or Trump. It is Jesus of Nazareth, crucified about 1990 years ago and said to have risen from the dead, according to believers. 

Without asking the owner of the yard sign about the reasons to obtain and plant it here, it is hard to know exactly what it asserts, but it does seem to be a way that is partly humorous (suggesting that Jesus could be a write-in presidential candidate) and partly serious about seeking to overcome divisiveness from demonizing and dehumanizing people who do not support your own candidate. News commentators have talked about casting a vote for the person who seeks to unite the many communities: choose the country, not the (cult of) personality. "Choose country loyalty over party loyalty," as the commentators have phrased the matter of voting this week.

addendum: One writer looks into the origins of the message in Alabama and concludes this is a veiled message of Trump brutalism, https://gen.medium.com/the-story-behind-those-jesus-2020-signs-76e620bf2a52

Grocery patriotism a month after Independence Day

Sunday afternoon grocery shopping in the peanuts, dried fruit, snack section.

Although the waist-level grab shot makes the Star-spangled Banner look very large, in fact this is the normal retail size that homeowners display on poles attached to the front of their house. Since this instance is indoors and cannot flutter in the breeze, the supporting structure holds the full rectangular shape rigidly unfurled.

The range of possible intentions by the grocery-store corporate headquarters, or the local branch store manager could be one or more meanings. Without probing in conversation, though, here are a few ways to interpret this public display on private property indoors, listed in no particular order of significance.

1. Initiated around the time of the July 4th national holiday in celebration of the Declaration of Independence from the colonial powers in London, this show of The Colors is a traditional sight, albeit normally outdoors instead of in the food rows.
2. Ever since the pandemic arrived at the end of winter season, little by little the small and large impositions on people of all ages and social circumstances has led to tension and irritability, tribal outbursts and blaming one another. So perhaps this national unity statement is a reminder that all citizens (and tacitly, too, the undocumented non-citizens) are members of the same team.
3. At the risk of overthinking the possible primary or secondary meaning, maybe what began as traditional July 4 exhibition has slowly taken on a new meaning as the federal government, starting with the POTUS, has failed to lead a response to Covid-19, including the Black Lives Matter movement, and will soon face the November election, preceded by the August Primary Election. Thus this flag might be a visual reminder to shoppers that times are bad for life expectancy, for social interaction, and for economic livelihoods and therefore it is time to elect fellow citizens who actually do have leadership credentials, plans, and results demonstrated in their careers.
4. Lastly, and not particularly compelling as a purpose for displaying the national flag, it could well be that this one location in all of the vast store, at shoulder height or higher to most shoppers, is meant as nothing more than a cheerful, comforting, decorative and status-quo declaration: "we were here before, we are here now, and we will be open for business tomorrow, too."

Seasonal foods for sale - neighborhood grocery store

In most parts of the USA it is the large national chains of food-plus-general merchandise "super" markets that attract most buyers as a one-stop solution to products for sale. Particularly in urban centers there are "food deserts" where there is no place to buy edibles not processed or ready-to-eat. Things designed for human consumption can be bought at convenience stores and gas stations. Fast food restaurants proliferate since profits can be had in urban centers with commuters and other temporary consumers on the ground during the day. But for residents, it is common to find no full service grocery store.

By contrast, this photo shows a store operating for generations in the city of Grand Rapids where shoppers can buy a wide range of fresh foods, knowing that the store's buying team constantly seeks local businesses to source the foods. The price is higher than the mass scale, low-margin business model for the national and regional huge floor plans of supermarkets. But enough people nearby this store are willing to pay for the flavor from freshly harvested produce and locally raised meat animals that this business is sustained.

locally sourced fruit, vegetables, and meat is part of the business model here

The weekly sign changes first thing every Sunday to advertise what is promoted with special pricing for the coming seven days. At the end of July the list includes Michigan cherries, blueberries, tomatoes, leaf lettuce varieties, in addition to chicken (breast). A smaller sign in the corner of the parking lot in the distance can be seen between the uprights of the big sign. It lists sweet corn for sale at 2 ears for $1.

The brick building in the background is one of the fire stations in the city of Grand Rapids. Sometimes the navy blue uniformed fire-fighters can be seen in the checkout line after they walk across the parking lot to buy a sandwich or other things to eat or drink. During the 2020 pandemic most customers readily began wearing masks early on, when trips indoors were recommended to include face-masks. Now there is a statewide order for all retail customers and workers to wear face coverings of some kind, so compliance is 100% by casual survey, looking around the premises.

Covid-19 dramatics for (backyard) cabaret

part of "backyard cabaret" hosted by Grand Rapids residents for friends or neighbors

A dozen or two cars lined the quiet residential street to enjoy outdoor, socially distanced snacks and b.y.o.b. drinks ahead of the evening's contracted performance with some of the city's local theater production company actors. Before the pandemic the Grand Rapids Civic Theater performed downtown regularly throughout the year to season subscribers and to one-time ticket buyers. As well, the city had at least one stand-up comedy location. But with public indoor gatherings of more than a handful of people no longer allowed because of the risk of transmitting the virus between asymptomatic spreaders in particular, some of the thespians launched "backyard cabaret" with brief sketches, song, and commentary for private performance at the host's house. Apart from the novelty of professionals appearing at one's home and repurposing the deck as a stage, there is the great satisfaction that comes from supporting the arts locally and engaging peers invited for the evening, too. Perhaps from the performer's point of view, as well, there is some degree of satisfaction in performing on the "small stage," after all. It would be interesting to know how widely this (business) model is happening around the country and indeed around the world.

Star-spangled (blue) banner

National USA flag imitated with no red stripes (downtown Grand Rapids, MI 7/2020)

The black and white U.S. flag with a single blue line in the middle of the field appears in front of people's houses here and there. An early June essay at The Marshall Project discusses this version of the flag with reference to the intensified scrutiny and protest over police abuse of black and brown-skinned people since late May 2020. What originally was imagined as a visual expression of police solidarity is being seen by others as symbol of White Supremacy agitators.

The reason to snap this photo, though, is not to mull over the specific case of the monochrome banner containing a thin blue line, but to reflect on the more general practice of co-opting this national symbol for narrow, sometimes personal, uses. During the 1970s and around the time of the bi-centennial in 1976 , especially, there was a lot of pop art and commercial use of the readily recognized combination of red and white stripes and the white stars that comprise the Star-spangled Banner. Motorcycle helmets, knickknacks, wallpaper, paint schemes on muscle cars, badges, cake decoration, and underwear like this could be bought or made. Now more than 40 years later the splintering of TV channels and (online) news sources and alternative schools has led to the tribal divisions that group people into communities sometimes defined by what they are not and emphasizing difference to others instead of being concerned with commonalities and common cause that everyone shares a stake in.

This black and blue likeness of the USA national flag seems to say that the "thin blue line" (uniformed members of local police departments) is what connects and holds together the halves (and the "haves" and have nots) of the displayed flag and by symbolic extension also the halves of the whole country itself: social order that comes from firmly enforcing laws, no matter if those codes are written well or poorly. Taking a similar approach of appropriating this national (and thus diversely shared and experienced) symbol for public display, school teachers could claim a key role in the life and future of the society. So could tax collectors, farmers, truck drivers, and car repair professionals. Taking a different theme from the occupational one, political factions might want to claim that only their way of seeing the world can be good for the country. A riff on the national flag could then express their own self-appreciation. Maybe most foundational of all, as William Ross Wallace put it in his 1865 poem, "the hand that rocks the cradle rules the world." By that estimation, the national flag should be interpreted to express the abiding presence of mothers and the very most formative child development years.

Seeing the flag in this photo displayed on the top of a pole in downtown residential Grand Rapids could be a private statement of support for friends, family, or neighbors who devote their working lives to the various roles within the police department in this city or elsewhere. Or maybe it is a larger statement about Law and Order as the basis for human relationships in the public arenas of commerce, communication, and cultural expression. Without talking at length with the person displaying the flag it is hard to know the shape and size of the meaning that the flag holds in this one instance. Perhaps it is most of all a reflection of this generational moment or historical intersection of events, ideas, and personalities that has no parallel in other societies or even around the USA at other points in history. But one thing is certain, because that flag has appeared in domestic and foreign places in private gatherings and public occasions, the meanings are many and the image is readily recognizable.

It is a rich source of meanings which can be harnessed for individual, organizational, or (inter)national purposes. Seeing it on this morning brings to mind a distant recognition: ah, that looks  familiar, except that this flag has drained away the full-color form to give only black and white, along with one stripe of blue. It may express a truth or the lived experience among past, present, and future employees of police departments, but for people without this direct connection, the original red stripes and blue field for the 50 stars to represent all citizens somehow is muted into black and white. Only the blue stands out in that flag; all else is diminished by comparison.

We Are One - so says the sign, but one what?

About 7 weeks on display: since pandemic week 4 in Michigan [17 June 2020]

Both sides of the sandwich board give the same bold assertion. Such a short, direct statement is powerful and unambiguous. And yet there may well be several interpretations carried by the message at the same time, depending on the state of mind when a person notices the streetside note. The location is about 2 miles north of Grand Rapids city center in west Michigan on a major traffic route for local travel. So even when most people obeyed the Governor's directive to "stay home, stay safe" there were still cars traveling up and down this route. And people on foot or bike who complied with the guidance on social distancing also pass this way from time to time.

The ALL CAPS is a typographic emphasis similar to shouting or speaking in a loud enough voice for people far away to be able to hear the message. The choice of this shade of blue may signify something, too: neither is this color a somber dark navy or official looking tone, nor is it cheerfully light-hearted sky blue. Instead the color is somewhat light (not taking itself too seriously or self-righteously) while still displaying a slightly muted aspect (in respect for those harmed by the Covid-19 disease directly, or by harm to their livelihoods and social/psychological vitality).

As for the text itself, "one" implies shared destiny and shared present conditions and shared past experiences. It does not insist that everyone is alike or should be uniform in their lives; only that unity in relation to the threat posed by the pandemic is a unifier. "We" is inclusive, like "one," as well. Unlike "me and you and they over there," the subject "we" encompasses one and all together, no matter the deep or the surface differences. "Are" is a state of being; the present moment; the state of existing in time and place. Taken all together the intent seems to be encouraging one another with a message of the present and a promise of the future. By extension the message suggests, therefore, that each person should express responsiveness and bear responsibility for one's fellows in need of small or big help now (and extending indefinitely into the future). "Be your brother's keeper," is the message, to reference a Bible passage.

People with friendly, optimistic, or trusting disposition may accept the message at face value: yes, OK, we all will manage to sustain our economy and social and spiritual life during and after the pandemic. On the other hand, people who have not been sustained or rewarded or respected by The System of social services, attitudes, abuses, and injustices may take a different interpretation of "WE are ONE" (but excluding selected categories of people who do not fit our preferences, ideals, or mental image of belonging together). In other words, whereas many readers see the message as hopeful and encouraging; a proclamation or permission to go out of one's habits and way of doing things in order to care for others, in the eyes of other readers the message repeats a set of exclusions so that only certain people who meet particular conditions can be included in the declaration. Such is the flexibility of meaning, rationalization, and us/them distinctions reproduced one relationship at a time. Even if the sign-painter authored a statement intended to be inclusive, some readers may take exception and define "we" in their own image alone. Other readers, accustomed to being excluded or cut-off from some relationships, social capital, and other opportunities in the community may well see the message as yet another assertion of moral superiority or otherwise exclusionary movement. In the end, each instance of noticing another person's distress and responding (or ignoring) will make the full meaning of the signboard apparent.

Drive-by birthday recognition to thwart Covid-19 transmission

friends and relatives make this little girl's 4th birthday memorable at a distance

Wearing a tutu and tiara, and accompanied by a pink chariot bearing "princess" on it, this little girl and her family waved and shouted as each of the cars in queue rolled up to the house, rolled down their windows (some wearing face/nose masks), and voiced their appreciation of this special day to focus on the star attraction, the Birthday Girl.

This was at 1 p.m. on a Saturday when the chirping birds and distant hum of lawnmower sound was shattered by a few mega-decibel police patrol cars with flashing lights leading the procession. The participating parade cars staged themselves a block away in the parking lot of an empty elementary school, closed since middle March by order of the Governor, along with the rest of the state of Michigan. Then one by one each car approached, one with a disco-beat version of the Happy Birthday theme or melody, and some held out cards or packages for the parents to collect (maybe to sanitize or quarantine for 72 hours to keep the coronavirus from transmitting). One or two cars parked after making their pass so that the riders could get a little closer to the family, while maintaining the 6 foot cordon from each other.

This photo shows one car with a helium balloon in the shape of a Happy Face sticking out from the rear passenger window. Other cars displayed hand-made posters and other signage to wave out the window or attach to the glass. A display table holds some of the gifts and what looks to be an older sibling enjoys the day, as well, knowing that each member of the family gets special attention in their turn.

Some commentators and interviewees on the radio programs have pointed out the possible bad effect from keeping school children cooped up, at a distance from peers. A touchless, socially distant "normal" non-verbal communication, and the heightened germ awareness of all surfaces will play out in the developmental cycle of young lives in many unexpected ways, no doubt. And the huge disparity between rich, middle, and poor countries; as well as within a single society, will also present a range of Covid-19 habits and expectations, too.

All this mayhem from a micro-organism! But then yeast is a small creature that affects life vastly, too. And then there was the vast swatch of death and economic collapse from the waves of Black Death pestilence, blood-borne or the aerosol, pneumonial type from 1348 onward.

Masked times, Covid 19 grocery shopping

surgical mask (left) and home-made cloth mask (right), ready for next grocery trip

Early March 2020 is when the people in the state of Michigan were instructed to “stay home, stay safe” and venture out only for essential workers (food, medical, car care, dog walking). But around the middle of April all grocery visits were no longer advised but now were required to be made with some form of mask (scarf, bandana, surgical, home-made cloth). This photo dates from the time of obligatory masks.

People remember the pre-Covid-19 social life, carefree about social distancing 6 feet apart (more for athletes breathing heavily). And at the moment people seem to be nonplussed by the normality of seeing everybody in some form of mouth/nose cover. Probably a time will come when only the high-risk people will carry a mask. Perhaps a vaccine will protect them and then most of the pre-virus habits will return. Memory is a fickle thing and all too soon lessons learned and habits formed will be lost to the mists of time. A look back at scenes from the midst of the pandemic will be regarded as alien or outlandish. And yet right now that is the standard practice, the “new normal” for May 2020.

Covid-19 pandemic, new waste streams

latex glove near city street in Grand Rapids, April 13, 2020

Five months after the Wuhan outbreak of coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 and four weeks after the State of Michigan lockdown of all private enterprise, except food and medicine and car fueling, there are a few signs of the pandemic here in west Michigan's biggest city. Confirmed cases of Covid-19 now in Michigan top 24,000, but many more are contagious and showing few or no symptoms. That same number happens to be the nation-wide death count so far. Half of the known cases in Michigan are Detroit and surrounding counties. So far 1400 people in the state have died from c-19 complications.

Here are some signs of the pandemic. Schools are closed, along with all non-essential business operations. People sometimes park at stores by leaving an interval from the next nearest car. Maybe 1/3 or 1/2 of customers don masks of some kind (commercially produced or homemade or jerry-rigged scarfs, etc) to trap their own breath (inhaling others' water droplets is reduced, too; but one's own expelled droplets are trapped most of all). Recommendations for social distancing at 6 feet apart are expanded for runners and bikers, who create a slipstream of water droplets when they exhale. The above photo shows the wide-spread use of vinyl or latex disposable gloves to use when selecting purchases at retail store, or when grabbing the handle to fill one's gas tank. With so many people unemployed or working from home, few cars fill the streets and highways; wildlife has been observed venturing out more widely than before, too. Those who walk their dogs or exercise do seem to follow the social distancing guidance, having to leave the sidewalk to create distance from oncoming people. Families, friends, book clubs, churches and their small groups, as well as businesses have been using some of the video meeting services to communicate by way of home Internet connections or using cellphone data services. Zoom Meetings have been particularly used a lot for their "one click" ease of use: 40 minute session free, or one person can pay the monthly $15 to obtain "host" credentials (up to 100 simultaneous users and 24 hours of uninterrupted connection per session). Food stores and perhaps other retail operations have installed plexiglass barriers to separate the breath of cashier from customer. Curbside pick-up of recycling and yard trimmings (official yard-waste bags) has been suspended, too.

Imagining the steps leading to more and more restrictions eventually going the other way, loosening up as Covid cases decline, it is hard to know precisely how all these precautions will carefully be dismantled. One radio commentator summarizes the "3 T's" as (1) testing, (2) tracing any flare-ups, (3) treatment that is effective and proven. Only when that infrastructure is in place can the free movement of people and their exhaled water droplets resume; not just in the orbit of the local economy, but also to go longer distances and between countries, too. The whole thing in the aggregate will be uneven, since hotspots differ from the areas most lightly affected. That is true within a particular nation-state, but also globally, with some societies better organized and supplied and informed than others. So long as the virus has a reservoir to reproduce, the risk of pandemic will always be on the horizon. The disruption to the status quo of transporting capital, ideas, people, raw resources and value-added products could lead to new ways of regionalizing or evaluating the things capable of conveying viruses. Recession or sustained recession that results in shrinking the economic pie (depression) may be another multi-faceted legacy of these months now.

Cars parked: you can have any color... as long as it's black

Attributed to the father of factory production of horseless carriages, automobiles, this joke pointed to the original mass production decision to mimic fine hand-built buggies and carriages in sleek black paint or lacquer. Most paints, other than black, performed poorly in the powerful light from the sun. In the generations before Henry Ford a great deal of (adult) clothing was in dark colors, including black, too. But 100 years later the technology to paint personal automobiles has advanced and there are many choices of standard color when placing a new car order; in principle a person could place a customized color order, too. Therefore, it is reasonable to expect that whoever purchases a new car is expressing an opinion about color preference. Or at least the reverse may be true: the colors that do not sell well communicate to the maker how to revise the number of cars in each color to produce in the future. The interesting point is that predominance of colors varies in each society; possibly within a single country differing by region, as well. What might contribute to this state of affairs?

So many cars in black or white, so few in other colors - what could it mean?

In the life cycle of cars there are the new car buyers who can exercise their desire for particular added features, choice of tire, color and so on. Later the person trades in the car to a dealer, or sells to family or others. The cycle of buying and selling continues until the car is too old or too unreliable (requiring too much care and repair) to attract a buyer, even at low price. Then it could end up in trade in ("we accept cars in trade, functioning or not") or donation to a charity that derives a few dollars in scrap or cannibalized for used parts.

With regard to colors on view in any particular parking lot, the demographic segment that shops there or works there is represented. If most vehicles there are 1-3 years old (new and new'ish), then the color probably was a deliberate factor in the buying decision because part of that transaction was to accept or reject the car present in the showroom or dealer lot, or shown in the database for delivery. And if the vehicles in a parking lot are a mix of new and used, then the choice of color originated upstream at the point of original buyer. Subsequent buyers of the used car will have found the color acceptable to their tastes or needs or requirements, thus indirectly expressing selectivity in color.

This photo comes from the north side of Grand Rapids, Michigan, where cars predominantly can be seen on the road or in parking lots in white or black. There are other colors, of course, and this picture is an extreme case of *no* other colors. But still the predominance of black or white is noticeable. Having spent 1995-2015 in middle Michigan, a rural and suburban town, where a wider range of dark colors and light colors was normal, this predominance of white (too easily shows the dust on country roads and the road grit on city streets; invisible in snow storms) and black (too somber and old-timey) stood out as a minor culture shock.

In the half-dozen years lived in rural Japan since 1984, it is white cars that predominated until around 2012 or so: as much as half or more of personal and fleet cars there came in white. Occasional visits to the UK presented a different mix. Red, white, or blue predominate; occasionally black or some other color (burgundy, silver, dark gray or green) is what buyers select. Thanks to online satellite views, it should be possible to zoom in and record screenshots of parking lots in big cities and small towns for a range of countries where personal automobiles are commonly owned and operated. Surely the mix will not be uniform. But what meaning or meanings might color preference signify? And supposing that clear patterns or at least trends seem to emerge, why could that be relevant or consequential when trying to understand the society and its members?

Back in the 1980s as a college student at the University of Michigan the fall football season brought a wide range of sports fans to the surrounding parking areas nearest to the stadium. The expensive seats (and parking locations) seemed to be filled with fancy cars in dark colors like navy blue and charcoal gray, among others. The rest of the parking spaces had a wider variety of colors and generally older cars, but perhaps there was a slight pattern in that colors were lighter overall (beige, light blue, brown, red). So a working hypothesis at that time was about SES (socio-economic status): managerial class presented themselves in more formal and expensive cars, relative to the others (probably middle-class and maybe alumni/college educated sports fans).

Why all the Japanese owners in Japan driving white cars? A working hypothesis for the 1980s-2010 could be related to the proverbial wisdom of the folk, "出る杭は打たれる" (deru kui wa utareru; variation, deru kugi wa utareru); the nail that sticks out will be pounded back down. In other words, the advice of the generations is not to draw attention to yourself, but instead opt for the standard, normal, unmarked presentation of self. These hypotheses are interesting speculations, but to return to the question: what could patterns of car color reveal about the people (and community) there?

The above photo illustrates the predominance of black or white cars (one neighbor had 4 or 5 white cars and a white truck recently) in the city of Grand Rapids (population 200,000). This city is the biggest on the west side of the state's lower peninsula and historically has welcomed immigrants and resettled refugees sponsored by the many active church communities in the area. The initial waves of immigrants were conservative Dutch rural people in the 1840s-1900. Even 6 or 7 generations later this part of the state is generally socially conservative, too. Perhaps the "black or white" expression of car color is consonant with that worldview and self-concepts or upbringing identities. Religiously affiliated precollege (and college) education is widely supported in the area and church attendance is relatively vigorous in spite of national trends of fewer participants. So as a working hypothesis as of 2020 perhaps there are ways to test (interview, observation and documenting) the following idea:

Suppose that drivers of black cars shun any other color because of a desire to present a serious (or at least someone to be taken seriously and be respected), mature, grown-up, or responsible-member-of-society value (a public-facing person). And by contrast, suppose that drivers of white cars wish to avoid conflict, avoid standing out, avoid attracting attention but instead cling to a private, undisclosed standpoint - like a blank sheet of paper that potentially can carry the Gettysburg Address, a love note, or a shopping list. White can stand for any number of meanings: pure, morally untainted or possibly superior, inoffensive to others, infinite potential to take.just about any form. All this supposition is wildly abstract and unmoored from individual lives and buying decisions. But nonetheless the predominance of white cars and black cars persists. It is not random chance, but the aggregate display of so many individual decisions that comprise a visible result.

Pandemic thoughts - stockpiling food and master narrative

When faced with unknown events, people look for precedent or analogous situations as a ready-made source of how things will play out and where one fits into the sequence of actions and also to know what to be cautious of when seeking to minimize liability and other risk from the situation. The spread of the novel variety of the Corona Virus that causes the disease the experts have named Covid-19 began at the end of 2019 in SW China. As of middle March there are more cases each day in France, Spain, and Italy than in China's epicenter.

Saturday around 6 p.m. on March 14, 2020 in Grand Rapids, MI - bare shelves.

So far in USA the news media has focused on the locations that report confirmed cases; sort of like a weather forecast about where the (known) hot-spots seem to be. Repeated instructions to wash hands and keep them away from eyes, nose, and mouth emphasize the behaviors to break the chain of transmission by water droplets exhaled or coughed onto hard surfaces (72 hours of infection possible; 24 hours on paper or cardboard surfaces). And with the shortage of testing equipment, staff, and infrastructure the message has been that testing to know each region's tally is helpful for administrators who deploy resources efficiently, but whether one's own test is positive or not, the same advice comes into play: avoid contact with other people and treat the symptoms; otherwise just let time heal the infection. If fever is high and breathing difficult, telephone for instructions rather than to arrive and contaminate the clinical settings. But what happens after a person is (confirmed to be) infected? When does a recovered person go  back to "normal life"?

If it is true that children frequently have mild or no symptoms, young and prime-of-life people normally have tolerable symptoms (unless burdened by complicating factors from underlying health condition like high blood pressure, diabetes, asthma, and so on), then why should the entire country public and private sector close any public activity and retreat to dispersed (social distancing) configurations of work space and home life? The officially given reason is not to contain the virus, but to slow the rate of infection so that the life-threatening cases can be handled by hospitals, unburdened by surges in admissions of patients. By playing the inpatients across a slower pace and longer span of time, any surges and resulting loss of life can be minimized; the disaster can be mitigated by collective action and for collective benefit. In other words, the central organizing idea for nation-wide, indeed- cross-national coordination of effort and closures and social distancing is meant to preserve life of the vulnerable, including elders (age 60 and older).

Although the public messaging is aimed at individual self-interest, in fact most people in good health are not at risk to die from contracting the virus and letting the cycle of infection run its course. Instead, the coordinated effort and urgent tone of public news briefings and analysis is about the collective dangers to the whole of society. Without an "all hands on deck" approach, including all the public livelihoods like transportation, education, entertainment, dining, worship, hobbies, and workplace interaction, the virus could very quickly inundate all segments of the population and mortally affect the infirm, weak, vulnerable, and so on. By putting on the brakes to virus transmission, many individual lives will be preserved, and all the accumulated knowledge, social capital, and emotional weight can be protected.

The cost of ceasing most all of the normal movement of people and interactions closer than 6 feet of separation is very big since so many hover at the edge of bankruptcy, debt, and so on. Any interruption in health, working hours, and income rapidly destroys social order. In the USA as of March 19 there is rapid legislative action underway to disburse money from the central government to each tax payer and worker. Precise details are not yet confirmed, but the idea is for 1 round of checks in early April and another in early May. But perhaps there is a silver lining in the dark clouds formed by suddenly idling almost all sectors of the economy for an extended period of unknown duration: more people will acknowledge the inter-relatedness of the world economy and within the US society; and that this collective effort may not directly, personally, and materially affect one's own life, but there are indirect effects that come from preserving the weakest parts of the society and paying attention to each other's needs instead of dreaming utopian escapes of news echo-chambers online and chasing after yet another consumer purchase.

Winter competition by teams playing "hungry hippos" on city ice rink

This past Sunday while waiting for the free downtown area shuttle bus (D.A.Sh) at city center of Grand Rapids, the sounds of recorded music on loudspeakers and a few shrieks and other excited sounds from the outdoor ice rink caught my attention. So I walked across the grass embankment for a closer look (right-click the image to view the video in full-size, directly on Youtube).

The table-top game, "Hungry Hippos," has been adapted for the "live action" scale of competition, here at the public ice rink in downtown Grand Rapids, Michigan. Each team has a designated color and is dressed in matching T-shirts, pulled over top of their winter coats. At the starting signal each team launches one player on an inner-tube, tethered to a rope. This player uses an upside-down laundry basket to trap as many plastic balls as possible from the middle of the ice. The team then reels in the player when the basket is full and relaunches the person to gather more. The object is to take as many of the balls as possible for one's team before the supply of colored plastic balls is used up.

For a spectator coming from a warm country, this vigorous embrace of the cold and disregard for the gusts of snow might look outlandish. For a spectator of this region, but coming from 100 or 150 years earlier, the concept of leisure time might seem odd, because in those earlier lives so much of living required time and effort: pump the water, empty the chamber pot, secure something to prepare for cooking on stove, fireplace, or oven. Much of what passed for recreation or diversions in those conditions somehow had to fit into work routines or in the brief interval between one task and the next. So to see so many people gathered in matching outfits with music emanating from boxes atop poles for a couple of hours really would be a rare use of daylight hours on a Sunday late afternoon and evening. But for the people there on this day, completely accustomed to snowy weather and well-insulated for it, doing something outdoors that involves major muscle groups, social interaction, and active involvement (nothing virtual or digital or asynchronous about it) is a precious thing to prize and fully enjoy. Even in the short span of 24 seconds in this video clip, the pleasant engagement of the people pulling their teammate on the rope while standing on the ice can be sensed.

Consumer glee - short-lived and shiny

Particularly during and after WWII the idea of disposable (single-use, discard, landfill) products and planned obsolescence has grown to the point that any other relationship to one's tools, chattels, supplies, and stockpiling is hard to imagine. Before the age of consumerism many people selected things in terms of value (function, durability) for price paid. In those days there were fewer choices of maker, design, and retail source. But now a given item can be bought new, used, donated, cannibalized from other parts. And there will often be several styles, build-quality, status (brand name) perception, and so on. Besides the historical changes in the buying, using, repairing or discarding life cycle, another set of questions concerns the emotional sequence of events that culminates in purchase.

neighborhood dollar store with diverse stock of low-priced items (author photo 12/2019)

 At first glance it might seem that parking your car and going into the brightly-lit, abundantly stocked, colorfully packaged and cheaply priced dollar store would be so different to a suburban indoor shopping mall or a city center department store as to be impossible to compare. That may be so when it comes to prices and expectation for employee service, but looking at the buyer's emotional response perhaps there is a similar stimulus-response pattern at play.

Sales experts learn to recognize "buying signals" that point to the person's willingness or objections to completing a transaction. These vary by personality, financial experience, and conditions of engaging with the potential purchase and way of coming to a decision. But normally they say that a decision begins with emotional force - either attracted or repulsed by the matter at hand. Later on some reasons can be produced, if necessary for self or others, to tell why the particular item was needed or was merely desired. This same order of operations (first emotion, afterward reasoning) can be found whether buying a house, a heifer, or a hat. So in this way the dollar store, above, or a fancy boutique on an exclusive street have something in common when it comes to tickling the buyer's imagination or tugging on their heartstrings.

The in-person experience includes deciding to travel to a retail location, making oneself presentable to go out in public, browsing without aim or consulting with a worker to find a product, admiring the labeling and packaging, making a comparison of the brand-name item with the store-brand item, and then committing to one to take to the cashier for purchase. Many times now it is possible to return an unopened item that is accompanied with sales receipt to receive refund or credit for another purchase. But a generation or two ago this was customarily not allowed.

Beyond the in-store shopping experience now there is the added complication online of being able to window shop endlessly for items of an even larger inventory of things still being produced as well as some things that are vintage or no longer in production. With the spread of commercial and home-use 3-D printers, maybe even long ago items can be ordered and "printed" on demand, thus expanding the universe of possible purchases back in time to very old models indeed.

Money and research time is spent on understanding the science of marketing and purchase-decisions. But so far very little study has gone into the end of the life-cycle to understand the factors surrounding a decision to abandon, give away, throw away, or shove to the back of the storage area (pole barn, basement, rental storage space, spare closet, attic or garage) to make possible a whole new purchase. In other words, what sorts of things trigger a change in status from trusty tool to useless clutter: broken, difficult to use after one's powers weaken or change, fashion, eclipsed by newer or better instance of the thing, and so on.

In contrast to the universe of meanings and materials for ancient humans who were highly mobile and were burdened with relatively few pieces of material culture, nowadays there is a constant stream of shiny new things to gaze at, covet, and sometimes obtain as gift from others or by oneself, or simply purchase outright in cash or by credit that is divided into monthly or weekly payments. The idea of "retail therapy" has been described by others to mean the momentary elation in claiming ownership of a tastefully packaged item of delightful design. The psychological equation of having more things with having more joy, social status, or peer respect is surely present in some instances of browsing or purchasing. It does cause a temporary boost in self-esteem or feelings of being unrestricted in getting something that fulfills a desire or even an impulse. So whether a shopping cart is cashed out in the dollar store or is paid for in a luxury boutique, the consumer narrative of seeking (hunting and gathering?) and finding the object desired seems to be about the same, although the size of the bill will differ in each of these two very different locations. And while very expensive-looking cars park at the dollar store right next to vehicles that seem to be near their end, at the pricey shops it will only be the fancy cars parking nearby. But all consumers setting out to buy something are rewarded with that emotional response that comes from completing a transaction and leaving the store with the new possession in hand.

Will the consumerism mode of economic life ever go back to the pre-consumer patterns? Or will things somehow combine both logics: one of durable value, the other of disposability that leads to the next new thing. Those questions belong to the future. But, of course, in the words of near-future writer William Gibson, "The future is already here – it's just not evenly distributed" (quoted December 4, 2003, The Economist).