Losing perspective and the bylaws.

First, I am (mostly) going to get rid of the draft bylaws for this block association. Most of you probably never even looked at them anyway, but I got coffee at Il Piccolo with a block resident named Lauren this week and she said that they looked official and lawyerly. I reread them and realized that they’re not contributing to the vibe I’m going for here. That vibe is basically a social club that comes together to solve the occasional problem rather than a grievance committee that identifies problems for other people to solve. More on that later.

Second, on Wednesday morning I read about some new mutant form of COVID in NYC that essentially does what you think mutant forms of COVID would do, and it got me thinking about what it means to lose perspective. This is a curious trick your mind plays on you where you start to believe that whatever terrible moment you’re in right now is just how it’s going to be for the rest of your life. And so I spent a fair amount of time on Wednesday losing perspective and legitimately wondering if this whole ridiculous, solitary, Zoom-based lifestyle that’s been foisted upon us is just our lives now.

I think the answer is no, but what do I know? What I’m more comfortable predicting is that when you’ve lost perspective, refocusing your energy on making somebody else’s life a little bit better can sometimes, very slowly, bring you out of it.

So on Wednesday afternoon I texted a guy named Erik Bottcher, who is running in an election this year to represent City Council District 3 (which includes Chelsea), to ask him if he is leading any efforts to help seniors sign up for vaccine appointments. It turns out the answer is yes, and given that I know this block is rather youthful and technologically literate, you might consider signing up. See more about it here: https://www.highline28.com/home/help-seniors-schedule-covid-vaccine-appointments.

Have a good weekend.