June 23, 2021 Commentary from a mile high

June 23, 2021 Commentary from a mile high: Travel. It is back. The airports are swelling with people. The security lines are taking time. The restaurants are full. There is no space for bags on the plane. Simultaneously there is a frantic call to vaccinate and find ways to get the vaccine out. I spent some time with a person who runs a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO), and we developed the plans of a vaccine drive starting with Gobindapur. Vaccines are available. For a price, and there needs to be coordination to make sure they can be given out. There is a real price for this – nothing is free. There are many who may not be able to afford it and there the NGO and people like me, supported by bondhus in places such as Wake Forest U, will jump in and start to fill the gap. As I sit here, I wonder what the World looks like from the top of the Control Tower at an airport. They are perched so high, above us, they can see all. Is there anyone who can see all of the crisis that is ending. Ending? Who do you trust? Some have told me in the last two days that masks are no longer required at my workplace. In fact, there is not even a need for social distancing. It is done. There were no takers for free COVID-19 testing in New York. It is done. Now we a turn to other things that matter because we have got this one. But then, why is Saint Marcos still empty? There is no one there? Why is there a new fear setting in at Bombay? No one knows. And thus you begin to ignore the inscrutable and you develop a gumption to deal with things as they come. Life must go on. As mine is going on now. Moving through time zones, always confused what time it is. I am going West today. They say that things are normal in Hollywood. Everything is back up. People are on the beach. Life has returned. Tomorrow I will know. The issue is not the return of life, but the constant pin pricks on WA, where one receives unverified messages that spell a doom. I have lost count of the Greek letters that signify the strains – I remember Delta. Something scary I am told. But it remains in the background. It is time to change the agenda. Focus on something else – does not matter if it is good or bad, but there is a fatigue in this. I can tell with the way in which the WA messages are changing tone. COVID-19 is becoming passé. Now there are other memes. Other jokes. This is a good thing I hope. As a colleague reminded me, “ignoring a problem does not make it go away.? That is so true of everything in life. Ignoring things do not make them disappear. Applies to all kinds of behavior and emotions. Sometimes we need to stop ignoring and face the emotions and declare what is the true feeling. Then face the consequences. Be ready for it. Be ready to excel or to be burnt to the ground. But ignoring it is not the solution. When in love say it, when in pain say it, when scared say it. The stoic only makes the problem worse. Sometimes it is best to “Say you, say me say it for always That's the way it should be” as Lionel Richie reminded us.