Pandemic history

I woke up in time for 'Thought for the Day', then fell asleep again until past nine o'clock. Bishop James Jones reminisced fondly in his talk about a discussion on the environment he once had with Rabbi Lord Sacks, which revealed the depth of Jewish insight into scripture. He said that for Christians, stewardship of Creation starts with the stories in the first two chapters of Genesis, whereas for Jews it began with the Torah in Deuteronomy where the Law states all trees be cared for, conserved not destroyed. A beautiful concrete environmental obligation. 

Then Rabbi Sacks went on to speak about Jesus and what made Him a prophet. His most important words were "But I say unto you ..." In other words, no matter what is accepted the status quo, or accepted truth was, Jesus dared to stand out, go against what was commonly accepted, to reveal new truth and insight. That's what prophets do. A truly remarkable man of faith and biblical teacher, whose death last week is a sad loss to thinking people of all religions and none.

Early rain and overcast skies gave way to clouds and sunshine, driven by a chill wind from the West by lunchtime. I cooked again, vegan sausages for Clare and a lamb chop for me, stewed in a tomato sauce with onion, carrot and mushrooms. Delicious cold weather food. 

Afterwards, I walked to Aldi's and bought some wine. For once, it wasn't very busy. I noticed that the Wickes DIY store across the tarmac from the supermarket has closed down. Not enough business to keep two stores running in Cardiff, I suspect.

In the evening, there was an interesting historical documentary on the Great Plague of 1665-66 centred on London, during which a 100,000 a quarter of its population then perished. It's now understood to have been transmitted by infected clothes mites and fleas, rather than by rats, as was presumed, before it was possible to model the behaviour of contagion spread, from city records. We also have Samuel Pepys' diary and Daniel Defoe's Journal as eyewitness accounts. 

It was commonly presumed Bubonic Plague was an airborne infection. Plague survivors were those who had learned social distancing. Tracing and quarantining those showing symptoms was enforced by law, resisted by some, and as ever, it was the poor that suffered most. Those rich enough to afford to change their clothes often were less likely to get infected, but it didn't work so well if tailors or launderers were infested, but business suffered as the death rate soared exponentially and those who could self-isolated instinctively. It was the second of three programmes. The third is tomorrow night.

One by one, the more then two dozen challenges to the US Presidential election results by Trump's lawyers are being dismissed for lack of evidence, but he still refuses to concede. Some commentators are seeing this as a strategy for retaining the attention of his fan base, in preparation for his next project, to build his own media empire. First, however, he has to survive several prosecutions which could land him in prison. It's stranger than fiction, still!