Stuck in Neutral

Wild violets – Photo: L. Weikel

I don’t know what it is. It feels like my brain is stuck in neutral. I’m simply unable to engage in any topic.

Nothing feels right to write about.

We watched only one ‘news’ show this evening and I find myself unable to write about what we learned in that hour. It boggles the mind to realize and admit how ludicrously and deliberately stupid people are behaving – especially the Administration.

I find it difficult even to write about all of this obliquely. I can literally feel my heart start to pound harder and seem to edge closer to my throat.

No Distraction

Quite maddeningly, I sent myself a good five or six photos I took this evening on our walk, but they’ve yet to ‘arrive’ in my email inbox. I’m sure any one of them would’ve provided a welcome distraction to my upset over the state of our country. I’ve run into the problem before (thank you, Verizon Wireless), but tonight’s delay seems particularly considerable.

The distraction that would’ve been provided was the unbelievable panoply of colors in the sky tonight, just as the sun slowly dipped below the horizon. It was as if there were an enormous, uncontrolled fire miles and miles away.

On the one hand, it was an unspoken relief that there was no actual fire, the colors were so brilliant and provocative. But on the other, it begged the observation that our country really is on fire. And that fire is out of control.

Not the Covid virus necessarily. But the willful ignorance about it. How it is spread. How vast swaths of people can spread it around while being completely asymptomatic. How close quarters of any kind are tremendous breeding grounds for its incubation and spread. And how vulnerable we’ve all been made as a result of tests still not being widely and abundantly available. To us. The United States of America.

Pinch Hit

I guess I’ll resurrect some photos I’ve saved on my computer from other days and ask them to pinch hit. I know you don’t necessarily care when I’ve taken a photo. But I like to use fresh photos that capture something of my day each day. It’s become such a part of my process.

This will run late, but I offer it anyway.

Keep up the great work of stopping the spread. At least it would appear that those of us in the Northeast (and I’m being generous including Pennsylvania in that geographic area, but we are in the coalition of states organized by New York’s Governor Cuomo) have been doing a yeoman’s job of mitigating the spread. Sadly, it would appear others are going to be paying a huge price for both an abundance of arrogance (thinking it was only a problem for the supposed ‘blue’ states) and ceding authority to corporations (such as meat packing plants) that apparently wield so much power that they tell the governments to look the other way. Or else. And get away with it. With the president’s blessing, in fact.

We need to pay attention. This is unsustainable. And it will affect us all.