Up above. Laws of physics on display. Shape, sound, size, trajectory, gravity, inertia. The list goes on and on. Here and there. But for how long? A stoppage looms, at least it feels that way.
A coyote sits on the patio when I wake. He looks at me with eyes that say “I was here first.” I give him space and listen as he lights up the area with his howls and high pitched cackle while the neighborhood dogs respond in kind. The balance tested once again. Ancient vs modern coiled like snakes mating near the waterline.
Freedom is a funny thing. If you are like me you are taking a moment to understand, once again, the fragility and greed of our high-tech world. The things we take for granted because we can because we always have. We talk about things in terms of “hundred-year” events but each decade sees the timeline fall like the soldier in the Capa great.
Sitting outside and looking up. An act that would seem to be a daily occurrence for most humans but when was the last time you did this? For me, it had been a while. It’s amazing what’s up there. And what soon might not be.
A wind shift and temperature drop. Clicking of rain on the skylight. My fingers cold as they press the keys. Clouds of pollen blossoming orange in the breeze. And now we wait. I wonder if we can learn from this. Are we too far gone? I don’t think so. I think we can and we must. Learn that capitalism has limits, as does the planet. Limits we passed long ago and in the worst of taste. I knew a child once whose first word was “mine.” Get it before someone else does. But here is the thing. Right now, right this second, I think I feel more about YOU than I have in a long time. I feel like you and I are closer than ever because the facade has been stripped. We are just fellow humans. Nothing more. I feel community.
Perhaps we’ve lost our footing, at least for the past few decades, and surely for the present, but we can get it back if we forget about the limit and focus on the foundation. This means, simply put, life-changing decisions for all of us. Adaption. Improvisation. We turn the river card but don’t yet know the outcome.
Comments 9
Amen brother! ….A certain strange vibe to the general overall quietness around my part of the work but sidewalks and parks full of people – keeping their distance but being (over) friendly…like we all have to practice that again.
Author
Jason,
Same here. Quiet roads but people out walking.
I’m becoming more and more a pessimist, hope I’ll be the one who has got it wrong: we are suffering a virus pandemia because we humans have become earth’s pandemic, we became so fragile, so small, but we are way too many, everywhere.
Author
Reiner,
I’ve thought we were destined to destroy ourselves and even thought this as a kid as I looked around at the mayhem we create in the name of capitalism.
I’m always glass-half-full. I prefer to trust people, knowing one of them will kick sand in my face, rather than live as a miserable old bugger. BUT while I have seen this virus threat bring out the best in people I have also seen it bring out the worst. From those genuinely more concerned about the you to those concerned solely about the me, from health workers literally putting their lives on the line to those hoarding toilet paper.
I suspect fear and threats of this kind merely amplify human bevaviour, good and bad, but I can hope.
Author
Paul,
Ya, it’s happening everywhere. And we are still running into the supporters of Donny who are claiming it’s a hoax to bring him down and that all the governors who are taking action should be fired. Even ran into one who claimed Nancy Pelosi created the virus. No joke, and they were violently stammering on and on about how one day the world would find out.
Paul, what we have seen in the past weeks is exactly what you describe, the you and the me flow in society. With both come a vision, a political power reaching for mainstream following. As far as I’m able to understand now, the past showed the me flow is still bunkered in the mainstream of power and thus no fundamental changes where to be expected to errupt in society. Me is feeding all processes for now. I sincerely hope that will change after this cardiac arrest of the earth’s main processes and we’ll have a change in the core of things. One of The Big Hazards threathening this process have a chance to be reelected next november. Count the numbers, it’s not looking very pretty imho. Thanks for your supportive message.
I’ve started to take walks. I say “good morning” to my neighbors…from afar. It’s been a simple I see you there. They always say good morning back. Now everyone is doing it. Funny how when you strip away the busy the human comes back.
Author
Jim,
Same. We just hiked the arroyo and finally ran into other humans. Everyone stopped, kept their distance and had a nice little chat.