“No one promised a linear pandemic”

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Transcript

Sarah: [00:00:00] Human psychology is so complex and the forces at play in this pandemic, particularly social media and misinformation, is not an individual character flaw. We are all tossed by the winds of history and culture and society and when you see someone caught up in the winds in a particularly tragic and heartbreaking way, we're sad for those people and we respond to those people with love and empathy because how we respond says just as much about us as it does about them.

Sarah: This is Sarah

Beth: And Beth. 

Sarah: You're listening to Pantsuit Politics.

Beth: The home of grace-filled political conversations.

Sarah: [00:01:08] Hello everyone and welcome back to Pantsuit Politics. Thrilled, literally thrilled to be back here after our July break. We missed you all terribly. We missed each other terribly. We missed processing the news terribly and so we are here and we are ready to talk about the infrastructure deal seemingly going through the Senate this week. We're ready to talk about the Delta variant, which is spreading like wildfire across the United States and upending our lives once again and we're ready to talk about July and what we did with our break. So that's what we're going to tackle on this episode of Pantsuit Politics.

Before we dive in, we hope that you loved our Infrastructure in Real Life series. We sure loved producing it and putting it together and listening to it with all of [00:02:00] you. If you're looking for a way to continue learning about infrastructure, we put together a special limited time, only extra credit book club box just for that purpose. You can order it up until August 15th, but then it's gone forever so boxes will ship on September 1st. You can order through Wild Geese Bookshop, and we'll put a link in the show notes. 

Beth, you also wanted to talk about your nightly nuanced series this week before we get started. 

Beth: [00:02:23] Yes. I know lots of us have kind of taken July off and I feel very passionate about the fact that it's time to like get back to it here in August. The country and the world need us to do that and so I hope that you will join us either through Apple podcasts subscriptions, or Patreon for the Nightly Nuance. This week, I'm doing a series on Cuba because the protest that took place recently in Cuba and the Cuban government's response and the US government's response to this protest really tugged at my heart while we were off and so I've tried to put that in context.

I'm doing a little history about the United States relationship with Cuba, talking about the Cuban constitution and how Cuba is [00:03:00] governed today and then talking about what gave rise to those protests and the response to them. This is all suitable to listen with your children. I know lots of families listen to the Nightly Nuance together. I think it's going to provide an opportunity for some really good conversations in this community and hopefully in your homes. So join us for that all week, this week.

Sarah: [00:03:27] Well, we took July off, but in a change of pace, many of the members of the United States Senate didn't. The team that's been working on the bi-partisan infrastructure deal just kept at, it, kept at it even over the weekend. So rare for members of the United States senate and they came out yesterday, said, we think we've got it, all 2,700 pages of it. I liked this quote from Utah, Senator Mitt Romney. "Neither side, got everything they wanted," and listen, that's how you get something through the United States Senate so I think that's very promising. 

Beth: [00:03:58] So the group that really [00:04:00] negotiated this were senators Sinema, Portman, Manchin, Cassidy, Shaheen, Collins, Tester, Murkowski, Warner, and Romney and noteworthy that Biden officials spent hours and hours. There were hundreds of phone calls and meetings and a real effort for the white house not to take over these negotiations but to be very involved in them. So we have a trillion dollars of spending 550 billion of it is new spending and it tracks pretty well the infrastructure series that we just published.

Sarah: [00:04:32] We have roads, bridges, highways, transit, airports, ports, broadband, and water. So a lot of the traditional. Infrastructure that we discussed in the first three parts of our infrastructure series. Now Senate majority leader, Chuck Schumer has said that the emerging infrastructure we talked about in the last episode childcare and other social spending is going to happen in the $3.5 trillion package that'll have to [00:05:00] be passed through budget reconciliation. So this first package is the traditional stuff and that's not surprising, right? Like that's what they're going to come to agreement on. It's highly unlikely that they would have gotten bipartisan agreement on infrastructure spending that we're still debating whether or not its infrastructure. 

Beth: [00:05:18] But that's not nothing. It's a trillion dollars. It's 550 billion new dollars and there are things like electric vehicle charging stations in this. You know, there is a lot about clean drinking water. This is not a package that is only building more highways and I think that's really significant and really exciting. It would be if it passes the largest investment at a federal level that we've ever made in transit. That is really meaningful. I've been thinking about the bipartisan framework, which I know a lot of house Democrats are very  unhappy with. I know a lot of like Twitter pundits would say [00:06:00] bipartisanship is an dumb objective right now because Republicans have shown themselves to be untrustworthy governing partners.

I don; don't necessarily disagree with that but I've been thinking Sarah about what it means to me to have a bipartisan infrastructure package and I think it's the bi-partisan part and more the idea that some things really don't have much to do with partisanship because your prioritization of infrastructure should be less Republican versus democratic political philosophy, assuming that there is a coherent political philosophy at play and more like, where do you live and what are the needs where you live and what do you see in your region that needs to be done? And so I am not necessarily glorifying that we had a group of people with different like team jerseys on here as much as I think we have this nation full of really divergent interests around infrastructure and a good bill requires people from Alaska to Maine, which is what we have here, really [00:07:00] sitting down and hammering the details out. 

Sarah: [00:07:02] I love that perspective. I think that's such a good point. The idea that we've all absorbed, which is that there is a democratic way to see something and a Republican way to see something and we must meet in the middle to find bipartisanship is not serving us. How's it serving us with COVID? We gonna get to that in the next segment. Sorry, just had to throw that in there, but it's not serving us. It's not always true. You know, the infrastructure series that we just did, we spend a lot of time on traditional infrastructure and the conclusion for the first three episodes was not everything's great. Moving on. We really need to focus on emerging infrastructure. That was not the conclusion. Spoiler alert, if you haven't listened yet. 

You know, the conclusion was that we have neglected investment, maintenance in our traditional infrastructure, and that we are. You know, suffering the consequences of that across the country in lots of different ways and [00:08:00] so there's no need to come to the middle to decide that, you know, there's some grand compromise. That's just the reality. That is, like you said, that's not a bipartisan conclusion. That's a non-partisan reality of our current infrastructure and so I think that that, that this bill reflects that. That they, everybody can see that the reality on the ground, whether you're in Maine and represented by Susan Collins or whether you're in Montana and represented by John Tester or whether you're in Arizona represented by Kristin Sinema, you can sit down with people you disagree with and look with your eyes at the infrastructure surrounding you and see that it needs investment and I think that that's what this bill is a reflection off. 

Beth: [00:08:49] And it's not to say that this was a perfect process or that the outcome is perfect or that it even perfectly represents everyone. You know, notably 

Sarah: [00:08:57] those don't exist in the United States senate.

Beth: [00:08:59] That's right [00:09:00] and, and notably, this is a group of white people who negotiated it. We have an over-representation of rural areas of the country in the discussions about this package and so the house of representatives will get involved here. There'll be an amendment process in the Senate, but to, to get past this idea that like bipartisanship is the glory goal, which I think is the main critique that I see of this process, I just think it's really important to say, like partisanship just seems really irrelevant to me. If we're actually talking about the substance of getting something done and what this group has allowed, I hope is to get to the substance of what's being done instead of just having this sense of, well, you can't get anything done unless you eliminate the filibuster, which is where we were stuck for several months.

Sarah: [00:09:47] Yeah. I mean, I think the idea that we have to see everything through this hyper partisan lens is why we're stuck in lots of areas and you know, not to, to channel [00:10:00] Dr. Phil, which my family rolls her eyes every time I say this, but like, how's it working for us? How's it working for us? This idea that I am 100%, right? You are 100% wrong and it is a moral imperative that I not bend from any single point of which that, you know, that I feel I'm right. I just think it's why we're stuck. It's not how the Senate was supposed to function, filibuster or not. Whether or not we eliminate the filibuster, which I am very much in favor of doing it doesn't mean that all of a sudden than we are in a place that one side is 100%, right all the time, 100% wrong all the time. 

Like we, we said this a million times on this podcast, nobody has a monopoly on righteousness in this country and so I think that the sooner that we realize that the government is a pragmatic institution [00:11:00] built around not moralizing, but solutions that serve the most people, not everybody, but the most people, you know, the better off we'll be and I hope that this infrastructure package, you know, moves us towards that. And not because, you know, not because I think that, you know, this is, uh, I'm trying to be morally righteous, but I think that the more tiny steps that we can claw forward and show that government can function, that government can just function and we can start building back the massive amount of trust we've all lost in the government and I, you know, it's, it's, we've talked about this so many times over the last several years. Like nobody believes the government can do big things because the government can't do big things because nobody has any trust in the government and it's this V this vicious cycle [00:12:00] and so I'm just grateful any time that there is movement, that there's any sort of progress so that we can say, see, look, the government did this. It helped. It wasn't perfect, but it worked. And we moved forward as a country in the face of a lot of disagreement. I just think that that's always positive. 

Beth: [00:12:20] I really love that Senator Leahy and others took time to call out all of the people who work in the Senate to actually make things like this happen and you spent the weekend there so that this work could continue and I liked his quote. He said sometimes I might say only half in jest that senators are merely constitutional impediments to their staffs. We are very fortunate to have some of the brightest women and men anywhere in the staffs of the senators of both parties and certainly in those who administer the Senate, including those who are presently sitting, preparing to help us on everything from points of order, to making sure the right papers are done and the votes are counted properly and I was reading an article this morning about how difficult it [00:13:00] is to recruit into government, how difficult it is to retain, especially people like scientists who are very important to ensuring, you know, engineers, people who really understand how to translate concepts into policy that can be executed on and so I'm happy that the senators are appreciative of those staff members and I want to make sure that we say we are as well. 

Sarah: [00:13:22] Yes. I worked in the United States Senate after law school and it was one of the most rewarding jobs I've ever had. The most rewarding moments were moments like this, where you worked hard for something impactful that you could see on the ground with your constituents in your state and I am so happy for the staff who worked on this, particularly coming off [00:14:00] of the January 6th insurrection where there's so much trauma and there's so much emotional burden and to have this moment where you could work hard and do what you expected to go there and do, right. Not fight conspiracy theorist or engage in constant culture wars, but go work hard. 

You know, find compromises, find solutions for people on the ground, where you live literally on the ground, literally in the streets and bridges and ports and the places that are important to you and I just think that that will go so far for the people there, especially in a job that is, is often hard and difficult and not well paid and we should work on all of that you know, particularly in the face of something like this, that they've produced and I love that Senator Lee, he gave such praise and. Exhibited [00:15:00] such grace and gratitude to the staff, because really when you're talking about a 2,700 page bill, they're there the infrastructure for the infrastructure bill.

Beth: [00:15:09] You know, thinking about the trust exercise that could come out of this I think it's important to set our expectations because the other big learning for me from our infrastructure series is that implementing this legislation is going to take a long time. It is going to be very messy. It is every single project that is funded by legislation like this, assuming that it passes and is signed into law will have its own set of issues. There will be constituents who are unhappy with how it rolls out. There will be difficulties staffing it. We, we don't have as, as our contributor, Jordan helped us understand during the infrastructure series, enough people who work in this field to be able to make all this happen currently and that's not even to talk about all the people who are needed to maintain it well and operated every day and so there's a lot of work ahead of us.

Getting this to the [00:16:00] finish line is really just getting us to the start of embarking on restoring our infrastructure in the country and I feel like knowing that from the beginning helps because we'll see headlines about real messes in the execution of this project and just understanding that like that is a part of trying to build things always. Hopefully will help us have a little bit more patience when those things come to pass. 

Sarah: [00:16:23] So it's progress, it's promising progress, but as with everything in a country as big and diverse as ours, it's just the beginning and we will be here through this legislative process, through the process, as the legislation hopefully gets passed and trickles out across the country. Next up, we're going to talk about where we are with COVID. Are we at the beginning? Are we at the missing middle? Are we at the end? Who knows any more.

[00:17:00] This morning as I was listening to coverage of the pandemic, particularly the Delta variant as it spreads across the United States, one of the journalists compared it to being strapped into a roller coaster finding yourself barreling back down a hill when he thought the ride was over. I think that's a really, really great way to put it. The whiplash continues with the pandemic. I think we talked a lot before the break about the whiplash of, uh, the vaccination and how fast it spread across the country and if you were in communities with high vaccination rates, the pace at which normal life seemed to return was jarring and now here we are, again, being whipped about with the Delta variant, which is spreading hot and fast and all across the country and whipping us back into this space where we feel like, wait, we're not back to normal life.

There are [00:18:00] ever increasing, ever changing guidelines about what vaccinated people should be doing. Workplaces are saying, oh wait, no, we're not going to go back to work. Of course, everyone is worried about school and so here we are back trying to process all this change.

Beth: [00:18:17] I heard the rollercoaster description from start here this morning as well and I agree with that in terms of sort of the emotional impact of all of this. What I keep trying to remind myself though, is that the roller coaster doesn't work for the pandemic because a roller coaster ride has a beginning and an end, and we are at a place with corona viruses where we know now that the goal is to live with them. We probably are not going to have a day when just definitively it's over. There will be some version of these viruses living with us and so how do we live with them? And in my less optimistic moments about the Delta [00:19:00] variant and I have had them, many of them, I try to remind myself that no one promised a linear progression here, and we have tools now that we did not have in January of 2020.

We can understand this differently than we did then because we have vaccines. We have a greater understanding of how this spreads and so while it seems really bleak to read, especially some of the headlines over the weekend about this, I also have to keep remembering that the vaccines are still really working in terms of keeping people out of the hospital and keeping people alive and even keeping people from getting sick. We have lots of reporting about breakthrough infections and I do not mean to minimize those because even though a very small percentage, less than 1% of vaccinated Americans have tested positive for COVID-19, it is very real and it sucks for the people who are getting it. Even if you are not going to go to the hospital with this, it is a [00:20:00] really unpleasant experience to have it and I don't wish that for anyone and I don't wish the transmission, but I just try to remember, we have, we are not lost right now, the way we were lost when this first came onto the scene. We have better information and that will help us, I hope, make better decisions. 

Sarah: [00:20:18] I totally agree that it's not one timeline and I think what makes this particular moment so difficult is that it's not one thing anymore, right? We have a pandemic, yes, but we have two very distinct groups of people that this is playing out amongst, which is the vaccinated and the unvaccinated. 93 million Americans remain unvaccinated and that is where the Delta variant is particularly dangerous. That's where we're seeing cases take off. That's where we're seeing hospitalizations take off and that's where we're seeing deaths increase but [00:21:00] as Americans and probably as human beings, we always find it difficult to hold two things at once right and so I think the, the difficulty in both the messaging coming from the CDC and the white house in the coverage, coming from media outlets across the country and in our understanding of it just as human beings and the sort of the psychology of the moment is that we're having to hold those two things.

Having to hold this pandemic of the unvaccinated and what that means for the vaccinated and that's hard and I think it's particularly difficult with media coverage because you're talking about journalists and outlets centered in places with high vaccination rates and so who are they talking to? They're talking to their audience which are vaccinated people, usually highly educated people, usually people concerned about what does this mean for me? And so you're going to see a lot of coverage about what does this mean for the vaccinated [00:22:00] people and also there are hundreds of millions of Americans that are unvaccinated, and so this is relevant to them and I just think that that is really, it's really, really hard to hold space for two things. For the incredible danger that this variant holds for the unvaccinated. I mean, clearly that's getting through, if you're looking for moments of hope, places with the highest rates of COVID or also with the places with the highest rates of vaccination, increased vaccination over the last three weeks.

It doesn't matter much what the media messaging is when Delta rips through your community, the impact on the ground is hard to argue. People getting vaccinated at higher rates in areas of the country where it had really bottomed out. But then you see the impact of the variant on the vaccinated and you, you know, it's hard to argue, look, I was a person from the beginning who said, it's ridiculous. Of course, we're not going to spread it but the Delta variant I'm having to remind myself every single [00:23:00] day is not the COVID-19 that we were dealing with from the beginning. 

The assumptions that we were all making no longer hold true.And we just have to remind ourselves of that constantly, because as humans we learn from experience, and that does not serve us well with an ever evolving virus, right because we're basing our understanding, we're basing our behavior on our past experiences, which might not be relevant any longer and so I think with the Delta variant, when you're vaccinated hearing things like, oh, vaccinated people that have a breakthrough infection, even though it's rare can spread the virus, they carry a massive viral load. You know, just remembering all that is, it's hard. It's scary.

It's because your mind just sort of, you know, not to go back to the rollercoaster, it just barrels down that hill and you find yourself in this space where you're like, well, what else is not true? What else that we thought w that we were assuming does that mean it can spread out doors? Like [00:24:00] what it could does that mean kids are more at risk and so you just, you find yourself sort of, you know, barreling down that, that hill of fear and I think, you know, what's really, really hard in this particular moment is, you know, fear's most beloved cousin is anger and because we have these two groups, um, if you find yourself in one group, it's really easy to be angry at the other one. If you did all the right things and you got vaccinated and you follow the rules and you're ready to wear your mask again, hearing people angry about mask mandates, angry about the virus, angry about any coming changes to their lives, especially among the unvaccinated is really, really difficult to stomach.

Beth: [00:24:42] And I think that is at least in my community felt most acutely among parents of children who are too young to get the vaccines, because there will be a point somewhere down the road where I think we are in a much more individualized inquiry about this when [00:25:00] our in vaccination rates are much higher, when we are able to vaccinate kids, there will be a point where we are going to have to take a breath and say, you know, if this person chooses not to get vaccinated, then they didn't. I can't keep adjusting my life based on that decision, right. But we're not there yet because we can't get our kids vaccinated.And because we don't, we have, our vaccination rates are still so low that variants could continue to promulgate and so I just am, I am struggling.

I find myself some days. In a little bit of a bitter place and I think that's because I decide to treat people who have not gotten the vaccine as one thing in my mind, right. I think, I don't think about the myriad reasons people have not gotten vaccinated. I think about the people who have not gotten vaccinated as the same people who stormed the Capitol on January six and the same people who think Joe Biden is not the [00:26:00] legitimate president and the same people who, you know, go around tossing Q Anon slogans. Like I I'll make it a character instead of recognizing there is just a, there's a huge spectrum of reasons and a huge diversity of people who have not gotten the vaccine. I'm not trying to tell anyone not to have those moments of bitterness. I couldn't, that would be very hypocritical. 

What I'm trying to tell myself is the more I harden around a vision of who that person is and the more that I let myself just be angry about the situation and about, you know, those people who I'm creating in my mind, the less room I have for creativity, you know, and creativity is what is needed in this moment and the less room I have for connection and connection, I think I. You know, I don't care about the CDC messaging because I think we are at a point with all of this where, what gets it done and, and our listeners inspire me here, are [00:27:00] conversations with people who you are really connected to about your experience of getting the vaccine and about why it is important to you that your loved ones get it as well.

Sarah: [00:27:08] I think your point about the unvaccinated becoming a caricature in your mind is so well put and I think the one place, the coverage of this particular moment has really shined is the individual stories of people, of the unvaccinated, who are then infected or who have loved ones infected. You know, I've read so many accounts of doctors talking about people who, you know, as they're being intubated say, can I get the vaccine? The New York times did a really heartbreaking piece about a particular family and a woman who, whose husband was on a ventilator fighting for his life and it doesn't matter how mad I'm getting. Those stories break my heart. I don't want anybody to die. Every time I read them I think I'm [00:28:00] so mad at you and also I'm so sad for you.

You know, if you've experienced grief or loss, you know, there's no way to read that story no matter what you sacrifice, no matter what you've done, no matter how well you followed the rules, to read those stories of you know, wives standing by their husbands as they fight for their lives and worrying about whether their kids are going to have a father and not be sad for those people. You know, I just, when I read those stories, I remember like human psychology is so complex and the forces at play in this pandemic, particularly social media and misinformation, is not an individual character flaw. We are all tossed by the winds of history and culture and society and when you see someone caught up in those winds in a particularly tragic and heartbreaking way, like it's just a reminder, every person is different. The influences, every person [00:29:00] comes under are different in how they decide to respond to those is not something we can really ever understand and all we can do is try to work on each other and be there for each other and not, you know, respond in a way. 

I told my boys, like, it's so easy for them to hear us and to say like, that's so stupid. They didn't get vaccinated. We were on vacation and we were talking about all this stuff. I said, Hey, you know, We're sad for those people and we respond to those people with love and empathy because how we respond says just as much about us as it does about them. You know, I know we're all scared for our kids and we're all scared for our loved ones and we're scared for ourselves, but letting fear harden our hearts, you know, is to me just as sad and heartbreaking as letting fear keep you from the vaccine, right? Like it's just, it's fear and hatred keeping us [00:30:00] apart from each other and it's heartbreaking no matter the consequences. 

Beth: [00:30:07] I tried while we were off to write in my head, the full story of why I felt comfortable getting the vaccine and I couldn't do it. I could not trace through my personal history and say, oh, here are all these reasons that you trusted this process and here are all the reasons why you made this a priority and here are the reasons that you, you didn't get hung up on some of the things that you might have otherwise, because honestly, there are lots of places in my personal history where I've had really bad medical experiences and where I have thought that medical advice was not helpful to me and was not connected to me at all. So I am not a person who's just walked around since birth saying like trust the science gang, but that's not me and when I did that exercise, it really [00:31:00] helped me find a little bit more space because I, if I can't tell my personal story of why I got vaccinated, I can't possibly understand other people's personal account of why they haven't yet and I just think that's important to hold on to so that I don't get lost in that really angry and bitter place.

And I think it's important to hold onto, as I talk to my kids about our next steps, because like many school districts across the country, we are scheduled to go back on August 18th, without restrictions in place. The letter from our school district notes, the CDC guidance and notes, the Kentucky health department's guidance that people should be wearing masks in classrooms right now and determines that they are going to leave that decision to individual families except on school buses. I have a ten-year-old who's very, very much just not wish to go back to school, wearing a mask all day and for him, it's going to be even [00:32:00] harder when most of her classmates aren't either and I know that's on our listener's minds and so all I can really offer about that because none of us can control those policies.

Well, some, you know, some of you are in positions to influence those policies, but none of us can really control them is that storytelling has been important with my daughters to get them ready to go back to school. I've spent a lot of time with Jane, especially saying here's what we know right now, here is what I wish for you and here's where I think we'll be as a family when it's time to go back to school and now let's talk about that. What do you think? 

Sarah: [00:32:37] Yeah, we have a board chair who's an infectious disease doctor. I've talked about the show, never been more grateful for him. We have a, we'll have a mass mandate based on the level of community spread, which is high enough obviously. I think it's pretty obvious we'll be going back with a mask mandate in place, but I think you're right. I mean, I think, look as I look back and I think about my own story, to me, [00:33:00] it feels sort of obvious that when we're talking about these two main groups, that some people have a story that the way out of this pandemic is to fight institutions and to fight people with authority and other people's narrative is to trust and to follow institutions and people in authority out of this pandemic and it's really hard if you're in one group to understand how the narrative, the convincing narrative and the other group could work, but it does, right. You know, stories are powerful.

The internet will give you evidence and YouTube videos galore to support whatever narrative that you've been convinced of from the beginning and I think that as we move forward, understanding that narratives are [00:34:00] powerful, but how we respond to others narratives can be just as powerful. Not, not with an attitude of like, I'm going to convince you how your story is stupid, because that's not how stories work, but to create a new story based on how you react and respond and it is so hard to hear, we cannot shame those who have not gotten vaccinated. Like anger and shaming is not the path out of this, but it's true and if, you know, if your narrative is that we're going to trust those in authority and with expertise, then we got to lean all the way into the public health expertise, especially those with an understanding of human psychology and do our best to, like you said, connect with those around us, to continue to convince as best we can and share our own stories and share our own motivations around vaccination because like you said, this isn't a linear timeline, but the [00:35:00] thing that is absolutely true is that we are in this timeline together. 

Beth: [00:35:03] And I think as a parent, the most important message that I can convey to my girls as they go back to school and find themselves taking more precautions than some of their classmates will, is that this is what life is going to be like. This is not the first or the last time that we are going to have a different standard than other people have. That we're going to assess a risk differently, that we're going to exhibit different behaviors from other people and that's hard and it's a bigger, you know, the stakes are very high around this. Uh, but the stakes will be higher around a lot of things where I'm asking my kids to take a different course than some of their peers. I wish that our school district had made a different decision about this I will be very honest, mostly for teachers, because I think about the difficulty of teachers about to head back into the classroom, how [00:36:00] much harder it has to feel to them when they've got a set of risks that they can't control for themselves and when they've got kids in very different positions because of their parents' feelings about all of this. 

I think that's a really big ask of, of our teachers and other people who work in schools so I wish we had gone a different direction, but we didn't and again, I can, I can spend all day being really mad about that, or I can just say, okay, what, what is there for us to do as a family here and what is there for me to teach myself and my kids and how can we not make the best of a bad situation, it's something much more significant than that. Uh, but how can we, can we do our best and lead with our values where we find ourselves?

Sarah: [00:36:43] Up next, we're going to talk about what's on our mind outside of politics.

Beth, what's on your mind outside of politics coming [00:37:00] off an entire month of our mini sabbatical as you called it? 

Beth: [00:37:04] Well, I think like many of our listeners, I wait with bated breath to hear about your 40th birthday celebrations and your travels throughout the Pacific Northwest.

Sarah: [00:37:12] Yes, we took two weeks as a family of five, but my boys and I flew out early and met my father and my nephew for two days in Disneyland, which I'm now a full Disneyland convert. I love how compact it is. I also think Cars land, which does not exist in Disney world is just the coolest and Radiator Springs racers, I believe is the name, is absolutely the coolest ride I've ever been on. I loved it so much. We rode it twice. We had a great time in Disneyland. I met my husband in Seattle. For those of you who didn't follow along on my personal Instagram, we went to Olympic national park, north cascades national park, Mount Rainier national park, down the coast of Oregon to the Redwoods national [00:38:00] park in California, up through Crater Lake national park in Oregon, and then flew out of Portland.

So we spent two full weeks in the Pacific Northwest on the most basic level, it was a delight because it was like a hundred degrees in Paducah and we were dang near cold on the Oregon coast, but it is just absolutely stunning landscapes. I mean, we watched the sunset on the ocean and we watched the sunset over mountain ranges that literally turned purple. Purple mountains majesty we sang the song, the whole shebang. We ate amazing food. I definitely like laid my hand on a Redwood and cried. Act surprised, but it just, we had a truly, truly amazing trip through that part of the country. It was so fun. I felt like our listeners, particularly our listeners in the Pacific Northwest were like on-call tourist agents.

Like I would put it on Instagram and be like, ah, I need a place to eat here and literally like within seconds, or can we make this ferry. Like, so like they were [00:39:00] just there for me and it just, it was the most beautiful, amazing reminder of the incredible diversity of our country, both in geography, in culture, in food, it just it was an incredible gift for my 40th birthday. I'm so grateful that we got to take the trip. That it went smoothly for the most part, we had some hiccups, nothing major. We even primarily escaped the smoke. Well, at least we felt like we escaped it. I don't think our sinuses escaped it at the end of the day, but it really was an incredible trip and I'm just so grateful to have been able to take it and I'm grateful to be back as well cause it was enriching and energizing and just all the, all the best things travel can be. How was your July? 

Beth: [00:39:50] Well, let me ask a question first. Did you plan the trip yourself or did you use an agency because you see, you covered a lot of ground?

Sarah: [00:39:57] Oh, no, I planned it myself. Um, probably [00:40:00] back in, gosh, I guess maybe March or April. I mean, I was booking some of the last BnBs in some of our places, but I planned out the road trip to get, I wanted to get as many national parks as we could, because that's what we're trying to do. We're trying, we have, listen, I bought my husband this national park, scratch off calendar. It has lit a fire under us. We're trying to get through all of them. We've gotten through eight in gosh, the last six months so, no, nine and so I try, I planned the road trip portion of. I depended on obviously like a lot of internet. There was one blog in particular it's called the Wheatless Wonder, I think is her name and she had some really good Pacific Northwest sort of itinerary. So I took bits and pieces of hers, but I planned it myself. 

Beth: [00:40:39] And you previously on the podcast shared uh, that on your 40th birthday, you plan to spend some time with psychedelics and I'm just wondering if that happened.

Sarah: [00:40:47] No, that's still on the itinerary. That's still on the itinerary.

Beth: [00:40:49] It's in the birthday celebratory period, which is still- 

Sarah: [00:40:52] Well, as I have previously stated on the podcast, my best friend, Elizabeth turns 40 in October, which means she won't turn [00:41:00] 41 until October of 2022, which is when I will officially declare it into my 40th birthday celebrating but up until then anything's on the table. So yeah, that's still, that's still on the itinerary. I'm looking at the, the details of that. Will definitely share my journey. Don't worry and of course the entire time on this amazing road trip I had Beth's birthday advent calendar that she had organized including credible messages from my friends, family members, and listeners just probably making me unbearable for my family member cause I was starting the day every morning with like, this is how you've changed me, this is why you're wonderful and I would just like, you know, come out for breakfast and be like, do you want to hear all the ways I'm wonderful again today, family members? So that's been, it's still going, it's a 40 day advent so it's just, it's been incredible.

Beth: [00:41:46] Good. I'm glad you've enjoyed it. 

Sarah: [00:41:47] And then of course, I came back and my house had been repainted, the ground floor, and my friends are like, rehung on my artwork, as I said and let me just tell you that that did not plan that as a 40th [00:42:00] birthday, but that feels like that my best 40th birthday present to myself. I can not recommend enough coming back to clean walls and like a fresh perspective on your house. Did I threaten my children within an inch of their life if they put their greasy fingerprints on my freshly painted walls? Has it created a little bit of tension? Maybe, but it's worth it because it's freaking gorgeous and I'm so happy I did that and accessible beige from Sherwin-Williams is just as wonderful as everyone says it is, which is good cause I painted like my entire ground floor that color, but it's so pretty. I'm so happy with it. 

Beth: [00:42:32] Good. 

Sarah: [00:42:33] So how was your July? 

Beth: [00:42:34] You know, I will tell you that I think it was the best of times and the worst of times. We did not travel in July for a huge variety of reasons, a big one being that we put in a pool this year, which has been a long time in the planning and saving for, and actually getting built. I have to say that Chad has worked himself to death outside, you know, [00:43:00] doing landscaping stuff and running speaker wire for the sound system out there and just, there's always some job with the pool and, and Chad has worked incredibly hard over the month of July and I am so grateful for it and we've had wonderful times out there, especially with our friends and neighbors and it has resulted because we have not been working, and Chad has been out there busy so much in me, basically being a stay at home mom for the month of July and I so admire people who can do that job and have that calling and I'm not one of them. I'll just be honest with you.

It's not good for me. It is not good for my spirit. I don't think it's good for my children and I am very, very happy to be getting back to work. As much as I enjoy, you know, having some, some rest and getting some projects done around the house. I organized a lot of things, you know, I, I cleaned up the freezer, just stuff that's like always on my list, you know, but that I never really get to. I started working on some new habits. I'm playing the piano every [00:44:00] day. I'm doing Duolingo to work on my Spanish everyday. Like some, some good things. I read a lot of fiction since I wasn't reading Supreme court decisions. Um, so there were really good things and also I am ready for a routine and a schedule and some independence for everybody in our house.

My children are about to commit crimes against each other. The siblings squabbles are it's too much and I think, I don't know how this month would have felt to me after a more normal year but I think having another month where we were just all here at our house together after a long year and a half of us all being here in our house together was not great for me and so I, I am really glad to be getting back. 

Sarah: [00:44:43] Yeah. I have to, especially when our kids are off from the summer and I'm like even learning more about how we can do our job next summer and thinking through this, I just, I cannot do the job and be in the house with them. I honestly, even if there's no work, I just don't like to be [00:45:00] in my house with my kids. That sounds bad. I like to be out in the world with my kids. I love it. I like being at like, we go to the park, like, but even when I was a stay at home mom and I wasn't working, we were out of the house a lot cause that's, I can, I can parent and feel like a human, if we're out and we're like directed towards a goal. Not that that eliminates the sibling bickering because Lord, we, we cover it.

Listen, this trip was amazing and also we were in the car for like a full day of the two weeks once we tally it, I mean, we drove like 2300 miles. It was a massive amount of driving and there was so much bickering and it's like, but that I still have to be, it has to be directed somewhere, like, especially trying to get work done or trying to do anything while they're here is just, it sits my stress level through the roof and so even on the news brief this morning, I was like, listen, it's not going to be a tight professional operation till we go to school on the 18th because we're going to go see my best friend who's back from Germany and hanging out with her family for a day and yeah, it's like, I'll have [00:46:00] to figure out how to record there, but that's worth it to me because at least we're in a new location and they're entertained and they're with other people because works so much better for me when we're. I totally agree with you. Like, it's just, it's not my scene. That's why I ran all the way across the country to escape it.

Beth: [00:46:15] Yeah and I just, I did not have the energy for that this summer. It was not the right prioritization for us financially. Like it just, for a lot of reasons, it didn't work out to like program July. When I did program in July was a lot of stuff locally, which was fun, but it turned me into mostly a chauffeur and again, I don't think it sounds bad to say I don't like doing this. I think it sounds like an important step toward valuing people who do have those skills, not to get political again about childcare and infrastructure, but, you know, until we can say, listen, it's really hard to be with kids at home all day. I don't know how we say and the people who are really good at being with kids in one space all day [00:47:00] are professionals who should be valued for that work. 

Sarah: [00:47:03] Let's give them all the money. I want to give those people all of my money. 

Beth: [00:47:08] And this is my biggest, you know, heartbreak about the Delta variant. I don't think anyone seriously in a policy-making perspective, believes that we need to go back to virtual schooling. I think we've pretty well understood that that doesn't work well for about anyone. I do have a fear that we will have staffing issues that could put us back in that place, that the reality could be that so many teachers get sick, that so many teachers have quit. That so many bus drivers are unavailable, that, that we could be in a, in a difficult position and what breaks my heart more than anything about that is just that I can see so clearly in my two kids who are fine, who are completely fine by every metric academically, emotionally, socially, they are fine and they so badly need the independence [00:48:00] that school offers, where they each go off on their own away from siblings to spend their day thinking about something that is not dictated by Chad and me. So I, I just, I really hope we can make our way through this because we all need it. 

Sarah: [00:48:14] Well, we are going to make our way through this and we are now back with everybody. We're so happy to be back. We'll be making our way through it together with each other and with all of you, which is a blessing no matter what the future brings. We hope that you all had the best July available to you and we will see you back here on Friday. Until then keep it nuanced, y'all.

Beth: Pantsuit Politics is produced by Studio D Podcast Production.  

Alise Napp is our managing director.

Sarah: Megan Hart is our community engagement manager. Dante Lima is the composer and performer of our theme music. 

Beth: Our show is listener supported. Special thanks to our executive producers. 

Executive Producers (Read their own names):  Martha Bronitsky, Linda Daniel, Ali Edwards, Janice Elliot, Sarah Greepup, Julie Haller, Helen Handley, Tiffany Hassler, Barry Kaufman, Molly Kohrs.

The Kriebs, Laurie LaDow, Lilly McClure, David McWilliams, Jared Minson, Emily Neesley, Danny Ozment, The Pentons, Tawni Peterson, Tracy Puthoff, Sarah Ralph, Jeremy Sequoia, Karin True.

Beth: Amy Whited, Emily Holladay, Katy Stigers, Joshua Allen, Morgan McHugh, Nichole Berklas, Paula Bremer and Tim Miller

Sarah: To support Pantsuit Politics, and receive lots of bonus features, visit patreon.com/pantsuit politics. 

Beth: You can connect with us on our website, PantsuitPoliticsShow.com. Sign up for our weekly emails and follow us on Instagram.

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Sarah: [00:49:58] Well, we remember how to do that part. 

Beth: [00:49:59] We do a good job.

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