Get Out of the Bubble Newport

I was young a long time ago and did the usual incredibly stupid things. If there is a hell, there are at least 10 things that are going to be the reasons that I am going directly there. One of the worst, is the time I was up in the balcony at the Fox Theater in Pomona. I think I was about 15, and to show off in front of my equally stupid friends, I took the very heavy loge armrest and threw it off the balcony. It hit some woman on the head and I ducked down and crawled to the exit, never taking responsibility. I truly hope that woman lived a long and happy life with all her faculties.

The point is that I did something wrong and cared more about showing off, than a human life.

I had to drive out on the Peninsula recently and granted it was a gorgeous day. The water looked beautiful when I glanced between houses, and I really wanted to get out and walk on the beach. But I didn’t, because people are dying all over the country and even though in Newport Beach it doesn’t appear that way ....it’s so tragically true.

I was shocked. There were dozens of people riding their bikes on the boardwalk. They were skateboarding. People were standing about three feet away from each other…if that. Because Bruce and I had been quarantined for so long, I had no idea how many people were out of their houses and actually “on the town, clearly oblivious to what is going on in the rest of the world.

The latest figures regarding how many cases of the virus in Orange County are published every day and Newport has been among the top three every day in numbers of cases. It has been proposed that it’s because Newport is wealthier, and the residents can afford the tests. That may be true, but I think what is truer is that the bubble that we have lived in has been breached, and we now know that things that happen in the world can actually affect us. We have lived a lovely life inside that bubble, but now we have to put our big boy/girl pants on and face reality.

“When we know better we do better” said Maya Angelo. Some of us have not gotten that message. Newport cannot afford to be number one, two, or three on that list of victims of the virus. We can no longer do anything we want to do. We are not special. We have to do what is required of us, which is to realize our responsibility to the rest of humankind. We have to realize that what we do now, in this crazy, unbelievable space truly matters.

So get off the skateboards, the bikes (sob), stop talking on the street, and if you have to talk, stay at least six feet away. Don’t kill anyone by refusing to exit the bubble.

Don’t be like the kid with the heavy loge armrest. Do not run to the exit. Get out of your bubble and do better.