I'm the guy who writes books in his garage office in slippers and sweatpants, and very often little else. So I'm in no position to judge my neighbors, be it the mom next door banging on her keyboards while trying to teach herself music, her son with a passion for purchasing old police cars, or my other next door neighbor from China whose husband died suddenly two years ago and who has suddenly found fashion sense and purchased a stylish Mercedes.
I can't imagine a better demonstration of civil liberty than police allowing demonstrators armed with loaded automatic weapons to rally on the capitol steps in an attempt to intimidate legislators. Any other country on earth would throw them in a gulag, level their homes, and salt the earth. Ironically, they are demonstrating over their lack of civil liberties.
A long time ago, on an overnight flight back in the days when in-flight entertainment was limited to one movie and a few random channels of music options, I wrestled with a sleepless moment in a darkened United cabin and searched for music that would help me shut my eyes for a few hours. I settled on opera, believing that songs performed in a language I did not know would help me shut out the world.
Someone, somewhere, is injecting bleach. Just saying. There's always one. I cannot currently splurge on a night out at Hanna's steakhouse here in RSM. There's takeout, but it's not the same. There are also takeout cocktails in mason jars, which is interesting because the cocktail is such an easy DIY thing. I think the fact that this exists speaks to the normalcy we all crave, where a steady handed bartender crafts a concoction of this and that before your very eyes.
I took Django to the dog park today. What used to be a chore is now an escape, so I sat on a bench as he trotted around with other dogs, check and rechecking my social media, because that's the only form of outside connection these days. If I had to estimate the difference in screen time from two weeks ago to now, the difference would not be measured in minutes, but in passion: from "enthusiastic" to "obsessed.”
I don't want to write about the coronavirus. It's all anyone is talking about and it would be nice to focus on some other sentiment. Having said that, NOT writing about the pandemic is putting my head in the sand. So in the name of being present and mindful, here are a few thoughts about life during wartime.
