As I sit at home waiting out another of the rough patches of life I think back on what I have been through over the years. It helps to keep me sane.
Coming of age in a fairly conservative suburban area of San Francisco in the 1970's there was the gay bashing, both physical and verbal I suffered through in my teens. There was AIDS in the 80's. A young gay man, I like to brag of being a club kid before the term was coined, living in "gay Mecca", as San Francisco was sometimes referred to in that era, we began to hear of "gay cancer". In those early days an AIDS diagnosis was a 6 month death sentence. We witnessed the deaths of scores, then hundreds, eventually thousands. Today it is a treatable condition. HIV positive people now live complete lives. This took years because research, due to prejudice, was often met by obstacles that sometimes seemed almost insurmountable. With this virus the entire world is working frantically to come up with treatments and vaccines.
Due to a retail business failing caused by gentrification of the neighborhood it was in, an odd irony, there were the 18 months of my adult life lived under the poverty level. I made it through this period, both financially and emotionally, because of my own grit and determination, as well as the occasional largess of friends.
Later I lost 2 jobs in the space of one year. One due to a booming economy and the city's desire to redevelop the downtown corner where the tux shop I managed was located. The second was due to the economic meltdown after 9/11. 9/11 also brought redevelopment to a halt. For several years the tux shop that had been closed sat empty. The site has since been developed and is now the studio for the Joffery Ballet.
The great recession caused another job loss, that one resulted in a nerve shattering 6 months of unemployment. It also caused a loss in the value of our home, although we were not as hard hit as some.
Today we have some money put away for retirement and equity in our condo. We will most likely be able to live off of our investments and social security in our "golden years" when we stop working full time, supplemented by part time work to add extra financial security and to keep us from going mad due to inactivity. We live, by the standards of some, frugally. Frugally, however, includes season tickets to Chicago's Goodman theater and a membership to the Art Institute. Then there are the multiple vacations we have taken over the years, including the 9 days in Europe in 2019.
Will it be annoying to wear a mask? Absolutely! Not being able to hug friends will perhaps be the most difficult temporary sacrifice. But I will get through this, even though there may be further sacrifices ahead.
Go ahead life, hit me again. Is that all you got?
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