Living in coronavirusworld 80: Just exactly what are the rules?

6/11

Morningside Park

Some days like today I find I just can’t sleep. In fact sleep’s been pretty messed up since the virus began. I’m trying to figure out how I somehow missed a farewell ZOOM party for a long time friend and colleague who’s leaving town last night. Anyways, I’m up at 6:30 AM . Make a good breakfast of soft bananas and yogurt and blueberries.  And what’s left becomes a smoothie. (Hint: which frozen in an ice tray makes for great dessert like snacks…) I work solid until 1 PM then fade.  When I get up from my nap, focus is hard the rest of the day.

So  much is swirling around. Trying to fund the right strategy to impact the national Presbyterian General Assembly and get it to speak as an Assembly now at this critical point in US, no ,global history. An independent Presbyterian journal has quoted extensively from our Presbyterian Health Education and Welfare Association’s letter to the Committee on General Assembly.  The division in the church used to be between liberal and conservative. It now seems to be between mission and maintenance, witness and risk management. Days are running short We need a strategy. And allies.  (https://pres-outlook.org/2020/06/how-will-the-2020-general-assembly-respond-to-concerns-of-the-time/)

Trying to plan my concert for Sunday afternoon with one participant live form Paris and trying  to convince a reluctant friend into joining me for a peace and justice  concert before the meat of the General Assembly and also just because. 

Trying to figure out where we are in the whole social behavior protocol, what’s right, what’s wrong While my mom’s still in complete lockdown in her New Jersey assisted care facility. And worrying about how to help my children with their own issues. And we all have  own lists, don’t we. And at any moment it’s enough to feel scattered and like enough, just enough. Virtual, is at the end of the day, virtual And...Just exactly what are the rules?

So I go for a long walk. Spend a couple of hours outside. Glad to  see the egret is back. 

the egret is back

In Seattle, protestors have seized a 6 block square area in the center of the city and declared it “autonomous” after the police abandoned the precinct.  The president threatens to send in the troops and the mayor tells him go back to his bunker. And with the way it's going, no guarantee the military would go. Has anyone noticed the military is 40% people of color?

I finish the day by watching a performance of London’s National Theatre of “the Madness of George III.” Just having lost the American colonies, its a dramatic story of how a nation that has  seen its empire begining to crumble 
tries to deal with a leader who seems increasingly  mad. 

Morningside