Two Minds Blog

While recently attending my eldest child's high school graduation (go Farmers!), I had occasion to reflect on how the Narrative mind works. I listened to a commencement address by a teacher whom the students had selected, and was moved to tears by his words about prioritizing purpose over money, taking time to connect with others, owning your mistakes, being humble enough to realize when you don't know something, and leading in a way that helps other people. It was all excellent advice. Then I remembered being 18 years old at my own high school graduation, more than a quarter of a century ago. And I thought about how, at that age, I heard similar advice ... and judged it to be a lot of empty platitudes! What did those words mean: love? perseverance? honor? vocation? My 18-year-old self thought that it was a lot of hot air. I wondered which reaction my daughter was having -- the cynical and jaded perspective that I brought to these messages in my own teen years, or something clo

It's time to talk again about COVID-19. Although the worst effects of the virus have been over for more than a year (death rates are essentially unchanged since April 2022 on the national level), many of the U.S. governmental responses to the virus ended only this month , as did the World Health Organization's global health emergency  announced in January 2020. That doesn't mean COVID-19 is gone, of course: It's still killing more people than the flu virus does, and it's still associated with the risk of Long COVID syndrome. But the end of "emergency" status means that (a) fewer resources will be available going forward to track or respond to COVID, and (b) people are thinking about COVID differently. After many false declarations of "victory" we have finally reached the endemic stage where COVID-19 is an ongoing issue that requires attention, like flu or RSV, but is no longer an urgent crisis. Realizing that people have had a very wide range of