Bob Schwartz

Do you know what angel gear is?

Angel gear
the neutral gear in a motor vehicle, especially when used to coast downhill

You may have figured out that it is called “angel gear” because when you coast down a long steep hill really fast, there is a good chance you will end up as an angel.

There are thousands of examples of people—some pretty smart—putting their brains in neutral as they plan pandemic strategies.

Some of these plans make me chuckle, because crying has to alternate with something.

Some in college football, for just one of many examples, still believe they can proceed with a fall season provided they follow stringent practices. One practice is that any player who tests positive will be out for 10 days and that any players who come in contact with him—including other players—will quarantine for 14 days. Any contact.

As some have pointed out, this could have just one infected player causing the quarantine of most of his own team and much of an opposing team.

In a related “strategy,” some teams have suspended pre-season contact practices so that at least the team itself will not be immediately decimated by discovering an infected player. That way, the team will at least get to start the season, though of course it will be a season with contact. It is after all football.

It is completely understandable that people and enterprises want to find ways to continue functioning, for so many practical and life-affirming reasons. But that can’t come with abandoning reason and putting brains in neutral. That downhill is still too steep and deadly.