Real magic is about creating the change that you want to see in the real world, and every post's a spell.

That's why I'm not going to post the piece that I wrote yesterday.

It's actually a pretty good piece. The title is Thank the Unvaccinated, and plays on the pandemic fatigue that so many of us are feeling right now.

If you're sick of this accursed pandemic...

it begins,

...thank the unvaccinated.

Basically, it's a litany: verse and recurring ironic response. I wrote it in a white heat of anger and even now, looking back from a calmer place, that anger—which so many of us are feeling right about now—seems to me justified, and its charges fair.

But I'm still not going to post.

Every post's a spell. With every blog post that I write—north of 1800 of them by now—before hitting “Publish,” I ask myself: Is this post likely to help bring about the change that I want to see?

If the answer is “No,” I don't.

So, I ask myself: Granted that railing against the unvaccinated will offer a certain amount of emotional relief, both to myself and to some of those who read it, would publishing such a piece make any unvaccinated person reading it more likely to accept vaccination?

The answer, of course, is “Probably not.” As Granny Weatherwax always says: “The most important thing about magic is knowing when not to use it.”

So you won't be reading Thank the Unvaccinated any time soon, though I will—in classic Midwestern passive-aggressive style—write about not posting it. Still, it's a sad fact—as I heard Dr. Ashish Jha (who gets my personal "Best Name in the Year's News" award) say the other day—at this point, this pandemic is being driven by the unvaccinated. Well, every post's a spell.

So this is one for blowing off steam.