More thoughts in the time of COVID-19 …
It has been a hellish week … buildings too numerous to count destroyed, pet animals rescued as well as lost, wildlife displaced, an historic observatory endangered, restrictions on intermingling, even some lives lost, and smoke, smoke, smoke, and more smoke.
A recent headline said … Air quality is at HAZARDOUS LEVELS (330+) throughout much of Siskiyou County.
Cummon, Hollywood (or wherever they make movies nowadays), let’s see some all singing, all dancing films. Forget a “great” story. Just entertain me.
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Weather has been yup … oops … chilly out there … yup … not that … a little warm … okay … wind, but not strong … yup … ad infinitum.
Folks are putting energy into prayers for rain. That information reminded me of a story from a couple of generations ago about two college girls traveling back roads and participating in local customs by offering (after a drink or two) to demonstrate a rain dance, getting to their feet (woozily) to do the twist or boogaloo or some such only to find it was beginning to rain.
Where are college girls when you need them?
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Last week a heavy wind storm was predicted for this area and the local power company shut down power to a good-sized swath of housing. They are still dealing with the fallout from last year’s fires, some of which were caused by downed power lines. It didn’t affect us since we make our own power, but the crux of the story is that we never got the winds. Here at Cold Comfort, we are still under that protective bubble (thanks for any energy/prayers sent our way), and the problems are going around us. Current forecast is for rain in a few days.
Remember the college girls and hold that thought …
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Tyler is still working with animal control for fire displaced animals. He has stories about a horse-mule combo who refused to be separated, a kitten blinded in one eye who is anticipated to have more offers of adoption than one kitten can fill, and enough other stories to fill a book. He seems to have a way with cats and has been working with the frightened, lost, anxious, bewildered, aggressive cats showing up in the shelters. I guess that could be characterized as cat-whispering.
Paul goes to school via the internet every week day and it is an education into teaching methods. If a parent is watching while reinforcing, it can explain a lot about what happens in a classroom under “normal” circumstances.
Kamille is working every day prepping food for the kids who, during a regular school year, eat at school. She is also acting as a TA for two special-needs children.
Mark is supervising Paul’s school time, keeping track of fire situations and what is available in our area by way of firefighting personnel and equipment, keeping the on-line functioning of the church under control, and doing all the head-of-household stuff. Keeps him occupied.
Me ??? Still doing the food share work much as in the past. Yesterday was the next to last produce share (Tailgate Party) for this year. Later this morning is the Weed Food Assistance drive-thru. And of course, I do my library thing as usual. No, not really as usual. Usual for COVID times.
Last week I read two books which told the same story … there are monsters among us. One was titled “Pet” by a black author. The other was “the Gone Dead” by a white author.
They were not easy reads, either of them. One surprise was that, at one point in the story, chapters about black-white interactions could have been switched from one book to the other and the switch would have been nearly seamless except for character names. In fact, as I was reading, the words were so similar that for a few minutes I thought I had picked up the first of the two by mistake and was re-reading.
A second surprise was the identity of the monsters.
I felt I was the choir to whom the lesson was being preached and so was confused that the sermon turned out to be not what I had expected.
Want to take a walk through a maze? Just don’t say I didn’t warn you.
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I had brunch with a new friend last week (I brought the pastries, she made the BLACK coffee). It was a pleasant hour and a half sharing background stories. You know … getting acquainted.
One discovery was we are both poets. So we are in a challenge … a poem a day for the next two weeks to be shared at our next brunch time. No requirements as to style or form or subject.
Here’s my first …
A challenge I said.
Will I do it and learn from
What I write each day?
And along that line of thought …
Because poetry requires an economy of words, each word must be densely packed with meaning and feeling so that a minimum of words conveys ideas and emotions too complex or too numinous to be captured in standard prose and in doing so, a good poem opens a gate and invites the reader to fully participate in writing the rest of the story. The Chinese calligraphy figure for “poem” literally reads “word temple” which explains it all. … Author unknown
So … onward … “til next week …