Field Notes #27: M*pox, pep talk hotline from little kids, Mary Oliver on joy
Call 707-873-7862. If you need to hear kids laughing with delight, press 4.
Hello, friends! We are in the hazy thick of summer here. I’ve missed you for a bit. All is well; I just lost a few newsletters along the way this summer. I think you understand. Sometimes other things jump in front, and sometimes you just lose the thread momentarily.
What I’ve noticed, kind of like flipping a coin to figure out your reaction, is that there’s a valuable discovery in how you feel when you find the thread again. When you pick up a project after a break, it can feel like the time has moved on — or like you have rediscovered a treasure.
And it feels sweet to find this thread again.
Thus, today we have Field Notes Friday!
1} Let’s rename Monkeypox
So the White House declared Monkeypox a national health emergency this week.
I’m guessing you have all been reading up on it, but in just in case you’ve only been reading the headlines, here are some facts from this rundown from The New York Times: How Serious is Monkeypox? (gift link)
No one has died from Monkeypox in America in this outbreak. It is rarely fatal.
Typical symptoms include a fever, headache, aches, swollen lymph nodes, exhaustion, and a painful rash that includes pustules (raised, red, filled with pus — blisters)
It can last several weeks.
People used to catch it mainly from infected animals: a bite, scratch, bodily fluids, or from eating meat that isn’t cooked well enough.
Now, people mainly catch it person to person through very close contact. There is uncertainty on exactly how it is transmitted.
The risk to the general public is very low.
And finally, Monkeypox did not originate from monkeys! It’s frankly a terrible name. The virus was first noticed in laboratory monkeys, but no one knows where it came from originally. Plus, “monkey” can be derogatory (I don’t want to dignify the slur by elaborating) so why can’t we just rename this incorrect, offensive name that was just made up to begin with?
I looked into this a bit, and there is a campaign out already to rename it. (NPR on June 15: The WHO wants to give monkeypox a new name). Some scientists suggested hMPXV (the “h” is to denote the human version of the virus). (How does one pronounce that? Just the 5 letters?).
But then more recent reports say nothing is happening! (NPR on Aug. 1: Critics say 'monkeypox' is a racist name. But it's not going away anytime soon)
The World Health Organization issued guidance way back in 2015 about naming new diseases. They urged:
No disease names referring to a place (a tourism nightmare)
No disease names referring to a person
No disease names with cultural, population, industry or occupational
referencesNo disease names that “incite undue fear”
This is an effort to avoid disease names like “Spanish flu” (a misnomer for the 1918 influenza pandemic, which didn’t start in Spain).
It’s best, the WHO says, to have a disease name that is generally descriptive, short, easy to pronounce.
Ok, there are a lot of smart people working on this. What’s a possible new name with this criteria?
According to a Stat News article, Monkeypox is likely to be renamed to …
Orthopoxvirus Monkeypox.
Hmm. That does not seem to be moving in the right direction!
For now, I’m going to go with MPox.
(Oh! I made that up, but I did a quick Google and some health centers, like the Whitman-Walker Health in D.C., are already using Mpox! Maybe there’s hope after all!)
2} Pep talks from kids
On to something different — a jolt of happiness through your phone.
If you are feeling down today, or just want to hear a silly little voice, I have a hotline for you:
Dial 707-8PEP-TOC or 707-873-7862
Call it, and you’ll hear little kids say:
If you are feeling mad, frustrated, or nervous, press 1.
If you need words of encouragement and life advice, press 2.
If you need a pep talk from kindergartners, press 3.
If you need to hear kids laughing with delight, press 4.
To hear how awesome you look, press 6
For bonus pep talk, press 7.
To donate, press 0.
To encouragement in Spanish, press 5.
Kindergartners from West Side Elementary in Healdsburg, Calif., and their teachers, Jessica Martin and Asherah Weiss, have put together this free hotline that has recordings of the kids sharing enthusiastic advice, comfort, pep talk, and laughter.
The teachers told NPR that they were inspired by the kids’ positivity.
"I thought, you know, with this world being as it is, we all really needed to hear from them — their extraordinary advice and their continual joy," said Ms. Martin, an artist and art teacher.
I dialed it and loved the laughter and the lines:
“BRO, you’re looking GREAT!”
“We ALREADY like you!”
You can learn more about the Pep Toc hotline here.
3} “Joy is not made to be a crumb”
I recently ran across this sublime Mary Oliver poem in the comments of the wonderful newsletter You Are Doing a Good Enough Job from Sophie Lucido Johnson.
I thought you would love it, too.
Don’t hesitate
If you suddenly and unexpectedly feel joy,
don’t hesitate. Give in to it. There are plenty
of lives and whole towns destroyed or about
to be. We are not wise, and not very often
kind. And much can never be redeemed.
Still, life has some possibility left. Perhaps this
is its way of fighting back, that sometimes
something happens better than all the riches
or power in the world. It could be anything,
but very likely you notice it in the instant
when love begins. Anyway, that’s often the case.
Anyway, whatever it is, don’t be afraid
of its plenty. Joy is not made to be a crumb.
— Mary Oliver
Don’t hesitate, my friends. Give into the joy.
To our journeys,
Brianne