“Oh, that’s right. COVID.”

“Yes. COVID.”

My friend Jenny told me she was out for a walk with her grandchildren, Abby and James, when little James decided he had walked enough.

“We need to go back home now, Nana,” he said.

“Why do we need to go home?” Jenny asked.

“The virus.”

Last March, a container ship, the Ever Given, variously estimated to be “as big as a skyscraper,” “as long as the Eiffel Tower is tall” and “the size of the Empire State Building,” was wedged sideways across the Suez Canal for six days, causing a significant ship blockage. Approximately 12 percent of the world’s shipping traffic as well as a significant amount of oil passes through the Suez Canal. The Ever Given itself carries more than 20 thousand containers.

That was the beginning of the Containergeddon supply crisis.

This holiday season, many Americans long for a return to a more decorous time, when people gave sumptuous Christmas parties and guests behaved with propriety, when no one brought up politics, religion or gluten or tried to make you eat kale.

Meanwhile, our upcoming Christmas season–which, as everybody knows, has grown heavily reliant on goods from China, from artificial trees to decorations to wrapping paper, toys, clothing, recreational equipment and furniture–you name it–may be bleak and barren indeed, due to containergeddon. Shipping network experts warn that big-box stores may be understocked on Black Friday this month.

Incoming cargo at the Port of Los Angeles is up 30% from last year’s record levels because of a surge in consumer demand. According to the Wall Street Journal, over-crowded ports on the U.S. West Coast are holding up shipments from Asia because of COVID outbreaks and worker shortages at ports, trucking operations and warehouses. Current global shipping times take an average of 80 days, which is about twice as long as before COVID.

For all of these reasons, cargo is piling up at California Ports. Walmart, Target, Home Depot, Costco and Dollar Tree have all hired vessels this year to deal with the pandemic-driven slowdown of sea networks by bypassing log-jammed ports.

A few years ago, I was in a local drug store that specialized in gift merchandise when I had a disturbing revelation. Everything in the store, outside of the pharmacy, was apparently made in China!

Being aware of our dependence on Asia for our Christmas celebration, do you think we can change our ways enough to pull through this holiday season, even if those container ships don’t make it on time? With a little imagination, handmade and locally made artisan gifts and decorations could fill in for some of the merchandise from China.

Here is a puzzle. According to the October, 2021 release by the U.S. Department of Labor: “The unemployment rate edged down to 4.6% in October. The number of unemployed persons, at 7.4 million, continued to trend down. Both measures are down considerably from their highs at the end of the February-April 2020 recession.” Still, the word is that worker shortages are widespread.

Employers complain that they can’t get people to work. I have friends who are badmouthing “those people”–whoever they may be–the people who supposedly “should” be taking those jobs waiting table, washing dishes or whatever. It seems some kind of moral failure prevents those people from stepping up.

I don’t have the answer, but I would like to say that before we join the chorus of people who are angry because they can’t get the service they’re used to at fast food restaurants, bars and other establishments, we should ask whether we are willing to take those jobs ourselves. Maybe “those people” are opting to go into some other line of work instead.

It’s true, our way of life does seem to be under siege these days, what with limitations on fast-food and other services and made-in-China Christmas gifts and decor. Maybe, as we try to find ways to deal with these changes, we’ll find a way to live that is actually better.

Or maybe the problems will soon be resolved and we’ll go right back to our made-in-China, Dunkin Donuts and MacDonald’s way of life with a vengeance.

Have a good week!

——

(Martha Allen lives in Keene Valley. She has been writing for the News for more than 20 years.)