Archive | August 2020

Mutterings

The first time I saw a child in town wearing a mask, my throat constricted and I almost burst out sobbing. That an adult conform with the cracked whip of a hefty fine hanging over their head is one thing, but to do that to children is revolting. We all need to breathe deeply but how much more so children whose bodies and brains are growing and developing. It turns my stomach to think of all those returning to school under such conditions.

It has also come as a shock to me that people know that masks do not protect from the virus, they know the virus is so small it can pass and yet they feel better doing something, just to feel as if they are doing something, even though they know it is of no use. This stems from fear, blaring at us from all sides. I printed a message and stuck it to a window of my car—it says “Fear does not keep one from dying, it keeps one from living”.

I don’t even wear turtlenecks, can’t abide scarves and I am expected to not mind wearing a mask? I realized today that many things I once enjoyed are becoming something to get through because of the mask. I will probably forego my art club unless things change which I doubt they will until the system has tried to force a vaccine on us.

How many people have an idea of how this new vaccine will work? Do they know it will modify one’s RNA so that one’s body will make certain proteins? How many years have they been promoting flu shots and yet we still have the flu? How many unforeseen secondary consequences will there be? How can they believe themselves so omniscient as to modify the human body’s functioning when it is such a complex mechanism?

When I expressed doubt about the seriousness of the illness of those testing positive without any symptoms, a person told me I could be asymptomatic and transmit the virus to someone else who could then get sick and die. Maybe a meteorite could fall on me and ricochet off onto someone else and kill them. Would that be my fault? Or maybe a sinkhole would open up in the road and I would accelerate just enough to get through whereas the person behind me would fall in and be annihilated. Would that be my fault? A great deal of responsibility lies with how people take care of themselves. They eat and drink crap, don’t exercise, don’t spend time outdoors and then are surprised they get sick. If any and everyone can or is a transmitter of the virus, how could you possibly know who gave it to another person?

I have also noticed some specific vocabulary these days with the word conspiracy. People get together to make a plan and organize things. If you don’t like their plan, you call it a conspiracy. If those who are planning/conspiring get found out, they call the others conspiracy theorists. They make it sound like a really dirty thing to be. Next thing you know, 2+2=4 will be called a conspiracy. Actually, I think I already saw something to that effect. As soon as you put two and two together, some accuse you of seeing conspiracies everywhere.

So there are the rumbles and mumbles of my mind at the moment. Perhaps the most frustrating is that so many exert such energy to exploit, dominate, manipulate, when they could be doing Good. This world is in a sorry state, but I have not given up—I know it can change if we change.

“Take the middle paths; they slope upwards, but the slope is endurable” RA 7/2a

August 24, 2020

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Pastry Bags

Not only pastries are irresistible, the bags they come in also have charm.

This says the genuine ones and small whims. When a child has a caprice, it can escalate into a temper tantrum.

I wonder if there are false whims.

On this one, we are advised to use precision bicycles to go get our fresh bread.

I make my bread personally, but it can be a good idea to take a little bike ride after it comes out of the oven, a slice with butter melted into it rapidly disappearing.