Optimism of the Will

This window decoration (I presume for Halloween) currently hangs in the dental clinic I where I’ve been a patient for the past 9 years. They have a very tight Covid-19 protocol. They sent me a survey before my appointment, asking about symptoms. I have none. They asked me to wear a mask and keep it on till I’m asked to take it off. They checked my temperature. As I stood, waiting for my turn (signs on the chairs say WARNING: DO NOT SIT ON THE CHAIRS), I pulled out my camera and made this photo. I thought of all the ways we have been asked to create new ways to see a doctor, buy a loaf of bread, visit a public garden, see an art exhibit. I hope we will yet find ways to return singers, dancers, actors, and musicians to work. I asked the hygienist if she feels safe.

“Yes I do. We change our uniform after each patient. We have N95 masks, shields and gloves. Our research shows that no dental hygienists or dentists have contracted the virus from an infected patient. There were a couple of front-desk people in an office in New York early on, but after that, we learned how to do that part better.”

Netflix is offering a terrific new documentary, Bending the Arc, about Partners in Health. A small group of people began with the belief that all people deserve and should have access to health care. They have succeeded in conquering or containing infectious diseases and igniting a global movement in health care for the poor, when many doctors, economists, and politicians were willing to let the poor die. If you’d like a mood-raiser and you have access to Netflix, give Bending the Arc an hour and a half of your time. At the end, they quote Gramsci (without attribution, and I thank Arachne and Jenny Owen for the ID), “The key is to have a pessimism of the intellect, but an optimism of the will.” 

(Footnote: apparently Romain Rolland said it before Gramsci did, but Gramsci developed the idea.)