Author: Lois Kathryn Herr

Here’s to all union members who’ve made our country great!

When we’re free of pandemic restrictions, what will become of our social selves? For now, I’m staying home in the woods, wearing a mask on those rare occasions when I do go out, and even attending funerals by live streaming.

I wonder, what will be left of our social selves when it’s over? Can we once again trust others, be in social groups without protection or fear, go to church, shop, etc, as we used to do? This is taking so long that it’s bound to have a lingering impact.

Honestly, how can those of us who obeyed the rules ever stop mistrusting others who didn’t when it mattered most. The ignorance and arrogance of those who don’t take Covid seriously has made this time longer than it needed to be. They have prolonged the torment, let people die needlessly, and by lengthening the time caused more harm – economically and socially.

Living through this time demands attention be paid – to health, to safety, to the welfare of others, and to healing the inequities. BUT, paying attention also requires the acknowledgement of facts and truth. Now many are reacting to incomplete and inaccurate information. In that context, how can we do anything meaningful? Chaos reigns, and not just because one person is erratic and unhinged. Maybe Shakespeare can help:

“The time is out of joint. O cursèd spite, That ever I was born to set it right! Nay, come, let’s go together.”

I am enough a child of the 50s to expect there to be an ordered society. And, I worked in high structured organizations, learning to respect rules, regulations and traditions. Thus in many ways this chaos discourages me. The skills I have were honed within those organizations, where when change was needed, we could see that change could come in an orderly process. But then, I got into politics, which is a much less structured world, to say the least.

Whenever it comes, the post pandemic world will be different from our past. Chaotic times are dangerous but civilization has survived such times, though often in an altered state.

This blog goes out into cyberspace but I am not at all sure anyone ever reads it. If you do would you comment once in a while to reassure me it exists?

Pandemic days interfere with big and little plans and cause serious dislocations and job losses, not to mention the pain of the virus itself for those unfortunate enough to catch it. And now, BLACK LIVES MATTER really matters, demanding overdue attention.

Maybe a blog like this is frivolous at this time, but I want to stay in touch with people, especially those who know and enjoy my books. Women, Power, and AT&T: Winning Rights in the Workplace has been reprinted by URLink and is available on Amazon and B&N in eBook as well as paperback. I worked hard recently to get the index into the file. First I thought it wouldn’t matter if we skipped it but I was later convinced that the contextual index would be valuable to anyone seriously interested in the people involved. As I worked on the index I was reminded that both Judge Bader Ginsburg and Judge Sandra Day O’Connor were connected with the story early in their careers. The version with the full index should be available by July 1.

Next I’ll be back to work on my memoir. I’m driven to write books and keep up my personal journal for reasons that are not obvious even to me. Maybe it’s inbred since I have the journals of my mother and great grandmother. Actually, I recently donated their journals, farm books, and family letters (1850 to 1950) to the Historical Society of Dauphin County, where they’ll be available for historians as well as family members.

Black Lives Matter for all of us, as underscored by the diversity of protestors and the diversity of places where those protests occur. That means, I hope, that real change is coming. It means that each us must look at our lives, past, present, and future, and how we interact with our brothers and sisters. It means that collectively we must change how we as a nation treat our citizens.

One way to bring about change is to VOTE for local, state, and federal officials who will be agents of the change we need and not protectors of the status quo (or worse). Personally I am committed to helping defeat Trump this fall.

Last Sunday my pastor posed four questions to us and in subsequent blog entries I’ll try to answer them:

What have I learned about myself during the time of stay-at-home?

What did I think was important that really wasn’t?

What did I think was unimportant that I now see as important?

How have my priorities changed?

Is there a market for novels about women at work?

I searched on Amazon and found lots of “how to” books, guidelines, formulas for success, even a book about how men should mentor women. Studies of barriers, histories, and even “Women at Work in 21st Century European Theater” were there but not much to match the stories in Mad Men (which of course could have been called Mad Women)!

Then I came across a list of eight fiction works about women and work, some of which I had read – The Circle and The Devil Wears Prada, for example.  Are there other adventure stories of women at work?  I refuse to believe there not much interest in them, after all lots of women live those stories every day.

If you know about good work stories, let me know.  I have this blog to write about them and my new website:

http://www.AnEqualOpportunity.com

I’ve never written fiction, but might try someday.

Do you find yourself isolated in an ever smaller space now?

I’ve always leapt to take on new adventures – leaving the corporate world at 48 and buying a farm, grasping the leadership of county planning, running for congress in 2004, signing up on a whim for a 110-day world cruise. Now the restrictions and fears of this pandemic world wall me in. On-line opportunities to be a part of the virtual world remind us where we cannot be. Some organizations, like my church, do develop creative ways to keep us together, thank goodness.

Our lives have mostly been in the world with others.  I thoroughly enjoyed people, whether that was in the phone company, or people I met in the farming community, or those in or trying to get into government and people I met while campaigning.  Seeing people on zoom isn’t quite the same

I wrote books,  but even that wasn’t a lonely work – it required solitude but it involved lots of people –  resources, publishers, etc.  Even the people of my family archives surrounded me for a few years, but they and their letters, journals, and old photographs have gone to rest at the Historical Society of Dauphin County where others can enjoy them.

Mount Gretna is a Chautauqua Community that thrives on art, music, theater, and programs that draw us together normally.  But the pandemic effectively closed Gretna this year.  Even our post office, which used to be a gathering place is now a sterile environment admitting a few masked and gloved of us at a time.  Our world has changed, and we don’t know for how long.  In fact, I’m sure life will never return to what it was.

Whether the future is better or worse isn’t really the question.  What we struggle with is the NOW.  Life in our boxes is uncertain as well as restrained.  For many who must go out of their safe zones to work essential and sometimes dangerous jobs, today is a living nightmare.  To those who are in a box with others there are problems to deal with, especially where children and the elderly are involved.  I suspect that women bear the brunt of the enforced closeness.

I admit that I am privileged and do not face the hardships most do now.  But my anxiety may be shared by others my age who have been leaders and always been players in the game, trying to make life better for everyone.  Whether by age, resources, or the pandemic, we can no longer “do what we do.” And therein lies great frustration.