NVN Sunday: CAN WE SEE THE SUN?
CAN WE SEE THE SUN?
by William Aarnes
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Beth and I are wearing masks and, as can happen on the subway, the unmasked man across the aisle raises his voice to everyone in the car to tell us that wearing masks and getting vaccines just shows we’re brainwashed by the “slime” of lies told by the government and the media. We’ve been tricked into believing all kinds of fictions. “Take the sun,” he says, his voice rising. “Yes, take the goddamned sun. You’re telling me you can see something that’s ninety-three million miles away? Anyone who thinks for himself knows his eyes can’t see that far! You’d need a Hubble, though that Hubble’s just another made-up lie. Anyone who’s reasonable and thinks for himself knows he’s not seeing the sun. Read your Plato and stop looking up at the useless sky. Don’t listen to those swindlers that are telling you any different. And stop going along with the idea that something invisible can make you sick. Or just go ahead. I don’t give a damn. Why would anyone give a damn? You’re all just pathetic!” As we leave the train, we don’t dare wish him well—what would he do?— though we want to. Beth and I wear our masks the two blocks home. It’s a gloomy afternoon, light rain. And the first thing I do in the door is—trusting the internet—open my laptop to look up the diameter of the sun. Then how much light the sun gives off— enough, I’m told, to leave you blind.
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William Aarnes lives in New York. He worries about what the conservative response to COVID has done to our thinking about public health. And yesterday his appointment to get a COVID booster was cancelled because the pharmacy had yet to receive its supply.