Happy Solstice Dear Friends,
2020 commenced with great hope for a new year with some significant changes. January went from challenging in my microcosm to a Whoa-Woe with a global pandemic. At this moment, I am in the shade writing in my journal at a picnic table…wearing a mask from the start of the bike ride here. My journey this year includes a lot of wins…despite the onset of the Covid Era, my microcosm has flushed some harmful vices and maintained. Other than the personal wins…the professional wins remain elusive.
I miss the pre-Covid19 years. The political discussions were about trad protectionism, a dumb president’s past misdealing, and where does all the public money get spent. I was near something great with interviews in the Phoenix economic development department, but March 12 was the start of an interesting transitional period. Exhale… Presently, the ugly side of humanity is on display in America. One random person coined it well, “Invincibly Ignorant”.
The Peoples of the World, including nations hostile to the USA, are wondering why…why is this happening in America? Blaming one incompetent president is not complete. This is a showdown in the playground with a Bully and the Other who has had enough of the taunting, dismissiveness, and violence. My historical stance has been to equate this situation with the cornering of a raccoon. Please be careful dear friends. While a political party is intent to allow a dysfunctional executive furthers Crony Corruption…Fuck...anyway, the immensity of this situation has caused me to shrink my microcosm.
*smile* professors often told me that my claims are too speculative with citations to support them…yet the professors did not necessarily disagree with my intuitions…well, the professors were seasoned educators who knew how to flatter a B student. I had fun taking on unpopular opinions and practicing devil’s advocacy; I am revealing this to give you some salt to take with this letter.
I challenged myself to a half marathon in February…back in a lifetime ago, I scheduled it. Check, I completed and repeated the race that graduated from a 10k a year prior to 13.1 miles. Camelback was surmounted 6 times in a day, a 50k turned into a 56k on a Birthday, and a 57-mile bike ride toughened my ass. I start with the Positives…balancing the tough sides of my life is an emotional journey. While my accomplishments have become realized…the United States is incubating Covid19. Could you imagine what the right-wing orthodoxy would spout if Iran experimented with Herd Immunity? My mid-life crisis is right in the middle of a global pandemic…my bad habits include spending too much time online with my opinions. *smile* one positive about the trump years is that my sentence structures and organizational logic are readable.
My microcosm includes volunteering, a new bike, a wonderful kitty Ava, a cool urban habitat, and fit parents. Grown at my new digs, I have eaten pounds of sweet potatoes, mulberries, moringa beans, and purslane (a wild succulent…delicious). I am growing handfuls of serrano peppers, Thai chilies, and other items with Scoville ratings. I tried making stone figures…the experimentation continues with letters soon (using fencing), with metal exoskeletons and drilling for larger pieces, and with various types of adhesives. I really should learn about the rocks I am harvesting. Last Solstice, I made necklaces for everyone I knew in Arizona. Send me a letter and I will send you a pendant for your necklace.
So, today marks a very long time since my last drink…I relate to people that I have a chance to see me as I have never seen myself before. But, in truth, the reason I quit drinking was so that I could successfully quit smoking cigarettes…so far, I am impressed with the effort…anyway, I remind myself that despite the shortcoming that I have, this is a win in the Covid Era to have accumulated positive changes.
I decided to make websites about things that are important to me; in a way, I am preparing for my inevitable decline into dementia, but in another, I am sharing until the ethos changes. These are simply my words/my truisms that help me make sense of the microcosms I interact with in the spectra of life. *smile*, I am okay most of the time, but I can be worried or not my usual self. Well, I have woken up more fully, my tongue is sharper (sorry loved ones if you saw it), healthier, have more endurance, and trying to be the better.
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