A C. T U. A L. L Y

So long as wretchedness continues to stalk the earth, I cast about for a counter-argument, an idea that will put the scales in balance.   Last week, my net pulled in a delicious catch:   a photo of Queen Elizabeth investing Captain Thomas Moore as a Knight Bachelor at Windsor Castle (above).    It’s one of the loveliest, most life-affirming, unabashedly happy photos I’ve seen in a while, and it goes a long way toward eclipsing—albeit only for a moment--the unsettling images one sees every day in the media and on television.   Long live their banishment!   God Save the Queen!   You may already know the feel-good story of Captain Tom; it’s one that makes the heart sing.   He’s the gentleman who set out on April 6 at age 99 to walk 100 laps in his garden before his 100 th birthday, all in the hopes of raising £1,000 for the National Health Service.   Successful beyond his wildest dreams, in 24 days Captain Tom raised almost £...

Over the past few months, it’s become clear that a pandemic requires a global response in a world where neither people nor goods stay put.   What’s also become clear is that, while we don’t yet have a global response, some people are working hard on one.   Whether they will succeed in herding the world’s globalist and nationalist cat-nations toward a vaccine available to everyone remains to be seen.   There are parallels between the twin catastrophes of climate crisis and coronavirus and, importantly, how we manage them.   In both cases, borders lose meaning and become irrelevant; global cooperation becomes necessary and urgent.  And in each case, time is running out.  The climate change mitigation clock, like the coronavirus vaccine clock, is ticking.  Lives and livelihoods are at risk.  Both crises are fully upon us, but at the moment the health emergency seems more imminent, and the search for a vaccine has taken center stage, pu...