Monday’s essay was about the mess America is in due to Donald the Dumb and his mishandling of COVID-19. We have approximately 25% of the world’s confirmed cases of the coronavirus and 25% of the world’s death toll due to this pandemic. However, our population is approximately 4% of the world’s population. It doesn’t take a math genius to see that America is number one in the world when it comes to how Trump has totally mismanaged COVID-10. Dr. Rochelle Walensky, chief of infectious diseases at Massachusetts General Hospital, said, “We are in free fall.”

Trump had the opportunity to act but didn’t. Now, Americans are paying the piper as Arizona, Arkansas, California, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and especially Florida are in the surge mode. Florida sets records almost daily due to this COVID-10 pandemic.

On the brighter side of life my life, Myanmar, with a population of 54 million compared to ours at 331 million, acted and shutdown the country early. Myanmar has 337 confirmed cases with 6 deaths. Go to COVID-19. Johns Hopkins University tracts the coronavirus throughout the world.

Our illustrious leader sees things differently.

During Donald the Dumb’s disaster, which he could have avoided, I sent my family some recent pictures that I took of them during our family vacation during my winter break from teaching. I have those pictures scattered around my home. I wanted to tell Moh Moh and the family about those photos, which are constant reminders of them. I mentioned that those pictures function like Royal Myanmar Tea; they remind me of my family.

As fate would have it, guess what I received the next day?

This is the surprise that Moh Moh had.

This is the artist with his painting of me. I think that Moh Moh told the artist that I was an incredibly wise, charming, debonair, and cute American. If Fatty, my youngest granddaughter, were there, Fatty would have declared for all to hear that I was the latest incarnation of the nat, Bo Bo Gyi.

This is a photo that Moh Moh took of the artist in Taunggyi.

This is Moh Moh’s English as the second language class for the young children in the neighborhood. Fatty is the young gale in the center of the front row of the photo. Ti Ti is in the center of the back row. I remember laying on the floor of their classroom and playing Scrabble and other games with my grandchildren.

My discovering my family in Myanmar was truly a serendipitous event. Serendipitous or not, it added so much to my life and is a great blessing.

Finally, Monty Python put living life into a song. It is also a great teaching moment for each of us.