Happy Spring! In which the world is curling back into frigid WINTER - with people re-stringing Christmas lights for hope, and Hunkering down - overusing that H word like the last soggy tissue at a funeral?- whilst angst and anxiety keep popping up alongside that popcorn on the apricot trees. All due to a little bug in the blood, and a great big one in the national psyche - (if there is such a thing in this world - where EVERYTHING is experienced personally, or not at all.) People are scared. Scared because their lifelong, extremely comfortable normalcy bias just got annihilated. They're scared of the Republicans. Scared of the Democrats. Scared because there might not be any bacon at the store tomorrow. Or milk & eggs, chocolate, eyeliner, or Necessary Tissue. Or insulin or keflex or Zoloft. No dentist for the toothache; no replacements for soles with holes; no water from the tap. They're looking over the edge of a gaping ravine full of dark hungry Scarcity Wolves. For some, those wolves are wearing MAGA hats, or what the media like to call "bad blond blowsie (Trumpian) blowovers". For others, they have BERNIE tattoed into their bloody matted fur, and Strangulation by Government shooting from their burning red eyes.
We want security and full American shelves, but feel tiny and helpless in the face of this planetary March blizzard of horrible. Those who consider it menacing, that is. I actually know some people (or "folks", as striving folk hero Barack would've said) who shrug and say, "Hey I'm not worried. t's all gonna work out." Work out of their bank account? Maybe they don't have one - hence the equanimity. Or maybe they bank on things that can't slide and slither 3K points in a day. I want to be like that - and have perpetual summer where the covid blizzards and covert wolves can't howl. I want to focus on what's good, what's eternal: what makes babies (of all ages) sleep peacefully, and what makes wolves slink away... - then work for, not just dream of it.
This blog is a start. Talking to strangers is a start. As long as they're at least 6 feet away? Like we are now - on both counts. Happy Spring, my as yet unmet friend - and fellow human being / co-child of God. (Whether or not you believe in Him/Her/They/?.) Because God - and godly behavior - is the highest, the best, the holiest... and what we need to hold onto right now. Even if just as a hope. A sure hope in good to come. Like a promised store, flowing with milk and - Honeynut Cheerios? That's your cue to smile. Optimism, faith, and good will being the ultimate viral prophylactics.
PS- If you can't imagine us as potential friends, please pause. We ALL have closed minds, and only with great effort crack them open - to consider that maybe there's good in those different from us. Do you value truth, kindness, courage, consistency, everybody-live-by-the-same-rules-no-exceptions; live and let live; save banana peels and don't step on small snails? If so you're not so different from me. (Unless you're a Marie Kondo minimalist - 'Can't go there. Yet.) Plus, we're unanimous against the virus with a crown. The one thing we ALL agree on! Happy Silver Linings, & Happy Spring.