OUT OF THE OLD BLACK BAG
Extra! Extra! Spunky the Monkey Replaces COVID-19 on Center Stage at Great Race
Musical accompaniment: “The Last Time I saw Paris” by Henry Mancini (music by Jerome Kern/ lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein).
“They also serve who only stand and wait.”
— Closing line of “On His Blindness” by English poet John Milton (1608-74).
This spiritual conviction by the blind poet became a “battle cry” for myself and other pediatricians whose sense of professional worth and well-being was devastated by the COVID-19 pandemic’s focus on the suffering and death predominantly in the adult population. Our social and athletic lives were on lockdown until effective vaccination and other control measures turned the tide. After a nearly three-year hiatus, competitive races and triathlons gradually were back on the weekend schedule like the phoenix arising from the ashes.
It had been three long, grueling years, distorted in time by the painful snail’s pace of the pandemic, since I had declared myself “Slow-vatch” and had transitioned from runner to reporter championing the “future of running in Pittsburgh,” the Junior Great Race. It could be said, indeed, that it was symbolic for the future of civilization itself.
The cocky, determined school-aged runners were seriously back in action pounding the pavement at Point State Park, not to mention the preschoolers briskly toddling hand-in-hand with a parent or grandparent at the Tot Trot. As in the past, the piece de resistance of the medley of competitions had to be the Diaper Dash, comprising a gallery of crawling infants lulled the 10 yards to the finish line by stuffed animals and sugary treats.
The Grand Master of Ceremonies was busy throughout the course of the event illuminating the hearts of all participants and spectators like a whirling dervish drinking “Full Throttle”!
”There he is!” they shouted. “It’s Spunky the Monkey, the star of the show!” Self-propelled and pedaling a unicycle, he was kept under control by his colorful clown sidekick just long enough for me to snap a photo before he was on his way to beguiling more of the crowd.
As the showcase concluded, I pensively straggled over to the Point, where a crowd reminiscent of pre-pandemic days was gathering on the banks of the three rivers. The fountain shot its mighty stream toward the sunny heavens and the gallant riverboats punctuated the riverscape. The lyrics of “Ol’ Man River,” the theme song from the movie “Showboat,” gently eased their way into my tranquilized mind:
I gets weary
Yes I’ am sick of trying
I’m tired of living and I’m
Feared of dying
But that ol’ man river
He just keeps rolling along
But suddenly I awaken from the fugue state as I behold a strange new landmark across the Allegheny River; it is called Acrisure Stadium now, rather than the Heinz Field or the Three Rivers Stadium I remember with some degree of home-sickness! I remind myself that the only thing that is constant is change.
I recollect the golden days of earlier adulthood cheering on the Pitt Panthers with my kids and eating ballpark hotdogs with my medical coworkers at Pirates games. I remember with some emotional tears of joy taking my oldest son when he was in kindergarten to Three Rivers to celebrate the Bucs clinching the National League pennant in 1990. For us faithful, it heralded the exciting three years of Pirates glory, which was shattered with one swing of the bat by an Atlanta Braves reserve pinch-hitter named Francisco Cabrera — almost 30 years to the day! Although it is a name that will forever live in infamy for us diehard fans, it is still a “warm memory.”
The last time I saw this venerable landmark, it was called Heinz Field. It’s now named Acrisure Stadium after a financial corporation headquartered in Grand Rapids, Michigan
“No matter how they change her, I’ll remember her that way!”
As I somberly jogged back to my parked car in the Northside in warm-up for the official Great Race the next morning, I contemplated how the three years of Pirates glory stacked up so meaninglessly against the three years of COVID-19 death and suffering. With the Junior Great Race having been resurrected, may it follow that civilization has finally returned to normality? We have picked ourselves up by the boot straps, have we not? Civilization was winning the race, winning the war.
It was only when I turned the corner onto Stockton Avenue and encountered the long stretch of broken-down tents housing the new generation of homeless and forsaken that I realized what a great fool I was — an unreliable reporter, indeed!
“They also serve who only stand and wait”
In spite of all the technological advances achieved by civilization and our apparent victory over COVID-19, the victims of privation, discrimination, and loneliness still inhabit our planet side-by-side with those of privilege, and probably always will unless there is a global change of heart.
The task is at hand. We can no longer just stand and wait!
Enjoy all of Dr. Kovatch’s previous essays on The PediaBlog here and here.
