Rant #2,385: Back and Forth

So when will life return to normal after this horror of a period that we are right in the middle of going through right now?

Who knows?

Nobody has a real beed on this, simply because nobody really knows when we can get back to being a civilization that thrives on togetherness.

Some have said next month, others have said later this year, some; like myself, believe that 2020 is a complete washout, and we won't get back to where we should be for at least a year.

The cup is half empty or half full; I guess it just depends on the way we feel at one particular moment, because quite frankly, I don't care who you are are what level of expertise you have, there really is no answer to the question.

And it is unfair to pin down our leaders--or for them to speculate--about when we will return to normal. Look, I know they do it to keep our spirits up, in particular when they give solid dates when we will move back to normalcy.

But I don't care if you are a highly educated doctor or just the average Joe, you have no idea when things will return to the way they should be.

And I just love when supposed knowledgable commentators compare what is happening here--a country of some 328 million people--with what has happened in South Korea--a population of 51 million people--related to tackling this virus.

South Korea is quickly getting back to normal as it has fought the coronavirus well before it ever got here, being the first acknowledged area where the outbreak began weeks before it ever came to our shores. Reports are that with testing readily available to anyone who wants it, and constant screening of the disease, life is slowly getting back to normal over there.

People say is that if we use South Korea as a template, we can slowly get back to normal here too ... of course forgetting the fact that not only do we have about seven times the population of that country spread over more than 3,000 miles, but that country has gotten a head start when it comes to pandemics, as they have had to battle the spread of MERS just five years ago.

And let's be honest about it--they are always on the lookout for such things, what with North Korea being so close to them.

So sure, their population of 51 million people was generally more prepared for the coronavirus than just about any place on earth, but when you look at our country, we have such a vast amount of people living here over such a land mass, that how could we be as prepared as they were for this? Heck, if you just look at the New York Metropolitan area, where the center of the virus still exists, we have about 32 million people living in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut alone ... roughly 10 percent of the USA's total population, and more than half of South Korea's population in comparison.

No, there is no way one can point to South Korea as the template for normalcy, or at least not in comparison to what we have going on here.

But people like to dream, and there was an interesting story in yesterday's newspaper about such dreamers, as related to the return of Major League Baseball to the U.S., again using South Korea as a barometer.

Since South Korea is slowly getting back to normalcy, the country is slowly gearing up for its baseball season in full. It has taken precautions, and will continue to take precautions, but it appears that South Korea and its own baseball league will open for operations sometime soon.

Having visited South Korea four years ago, I have to say that this is a remarkable accomplishment if it works, but if one player gets the virus, the whole thing will be shuttered. No need to jump the gun there, and there is no need for Americans to jump the gun with our own baseball here.

Here is what I wrote about Korean baseball yesterday on Facebook. It is an interesting aside from American baseball, and I guess such a story keeps the appetite real for us, as a country, getting back to normal, led by our national pastime:

"Comparing the United States with South Korea is truly an "apples and oranges" thing. But South Korea's sports regimen as it deals with the coronavirus must also be looked at by Major League Baseball as a testing ground for what might end up happening over here.

When my wife and I were in South Korea four years ago, baseball was very popular, but more American baseball than anything else. Our interpreter told us that while the Korean league is popular, even Koreans themselves look at it as nothing more than an "inferior" league to the American game, and thus, it was really difficult to find hats of the Korean teams, but easy to find hats of American teams, i particular the New York Yankees.

The Yankees symbolize "America" to South Koreans, and thus, the Yankees interlocking N-Y logo is found everywhere in the country, and people of all ages--tykes to senior citizens--wear in on their clothing as almost a status symbol.

Thus, I find it somewhat ironic that MLB is now looking to the Korean baseball league for ideas and inspiration."

There you have it.

I simply believe that rather than jump the gun, we must be vigilant against this disease, and we must do what we can go to get it out of here, not rush the process.

We will beat this thing, but it is going to take time, and time is the one thing that the virus cannot take away from us.

Let's understand that and run with it; if not, there will be missteps, errors in judgment that might set us back even further.