Living in coronavirusworld 81: ...trying to catch the ocean....

6/12

Playing in a sprinkler in Morningside Park

What’s maddening is that so much is taking place that  we can’t take it all in. Like standing on the shore with hands open trying to catch  the ocean. Like taking funding  away for WHO and redirecting it to Franklin Graham? Like taking funding away from School districts that allow trans youth to compete?  Ending non-discrimination against people who are trans in health care? Qanon candidates going mainstream in the Republican party? Massive voter suppression?  It goes on and on every day and the people affected raise voices on social media but mainstream news is too overwhelmed to respond.  By the time democracy is restored, it will take years to undo what has been done. Like Chile after Pinochet, when you add in the Supreme Court, the damage is deep and wide.

My son's old neighborhood in Seattle has declared itself autonomous. Part of what’s at stake there is gentrification, among the original  initiating issues. And fear among Black Lives Matter activists that the original focus can be blurred. And of course the whole system has to go, but once again the simple naked issue of police violence against the black community may be lost in the shuffle.. And can the Seattle  activists avoid the pitfalls that ate up Occupy Wall Street from the inside, even without the predictable confusion and dissension  of provocateurs? 

I have a long conversation with a former moderator of the Presbyterian Church about the collective  former moderators' unsuccessful….and resented…efforts to open up the General Assembly process to be responsive to the national crisis. This is going to be hard.  As the cry of Black Lives Matter continues to show how deeply  it has touched the postcolonial empire states.  The words appearing in one form or another on sports uniforms and even corporate ads. 

Days spent behind computer screen wear away at you, exhaust. People connections feel like they’re slipping away.  I go out for a walk and don’t want to come back. Someone in Morningside Park has set up a sprinkler and children are running through it and  I want to join them. The boxing trainer continues his lessons with the wiry  young woman while other trainees wait.  I imagine  what she must feel like, punching with speed and power.  There's an underlying grace and beauty to the violence. 

Training

And lines form for helados on  a hot day.

helados

The  months  have fallen out of shape and form without their usual markers.

For some reason,  the linkage between ZOOM and Facebook streaming just doesn’t work despite meticulously going through  each successive step  and unable to get past the preparing stage.  Of course raising serious anxiety for my Sunday performance. And I try not to lose patience with people why just can’t make their  way in to the ZOOM room. For those of us who are there, it is good to be together. 

I am on the shore, hands open…..