Silver Lining during a Shit Show

As of this week 44.7M people world-wide have contracted COVID19; a staggering “1,175,400 people have died, and the virus has been detected in nearly every country…” (Covid World Map). The United States has the highest number of cases, and has the great distinction of being first in deaths too. New cases are growing here and abroad, causing a round of new restrictions and major despair everywhere.

These sobering numbers don’t care about borders or politics or whether one’s dictator or elected president did more or less than they could, there has simply been an unprecedented spread of this contagion. Unlike many people, I see no silver lining in this pandemic or the collapse of our economy from one end of the globe clear around; COVID19 and our response to it is a shit-show which has taken away our sense of normalcy, safety, and mental health. If it hasn’t caused you to cry on the floor for at least 20 minutes every day, I have to wonder what type of gilded tower you have escaped to…

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Fool’s Gold

Today’s headlines are doin nothin but causin fear and chaos over disaster and death. A hell-broth of fire storms from coast to coast and if you are like me, you are feeling staggering grief, little beyond grief.

“Trump Again Refuses to Commit to Accepting Election Results” (New York Times). 

“Trump Renews Mail Vote Attacks, Again Questions Reliability of Ballots” (Wall Street Journal).

“Florida Supreme Court rules against Parkland families” (FOX News).

“Breonna Taylor shooting: A 190-plus-day timeline shows how her death changed Louisville” (Courier Journal).

“Missouri’s governor has refused to mandate masks. Now he’s tested positive for the coronavirus”  (Washington Post).

“California Fire Map & Tracker” (San Fransisco Chronicle).

Thankfully there is an outdoors, away from most of this craziness, away to blue sky and open space. And here one can retreat to a place which acts as a reminder of the before days.

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Old Glory

The original “Pledge of Allegiance” written in August 1892 by the socialist minister Francis Bellamy was published in The Youth’s Companion on September 8, 1892. Simple, universal, and enduring: “I pledge allegiance to my Flag and the Republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all” (U.S. History).

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