living incoronavirusworld 79: We're all in this together

6/9

every street, everyhouse

I notice for the first time that one of my neighbors works for Montefiore Hospital.  I see her coming home tired, in her scrubs. 

We notice from out of nowhere, our front wall has been invaded by lady bugs. They are all over. She'll cal the super.

Sigh.  Antifa is not terrorist. It’s not even an organization. And the 75 year old man,  Martin Gugino has nothing to do with Antifa. He’s lifelong peace activist and Catholic Worker. Shoved to the ground by police and bleeding. In the hospital. Critical care. Sigh.

Drinking coffee all  day is beginning to not feel good. I think back to my time in Argentina. And Uruguay. And the role of mate in daily life. With its rituals, mates and bombillas. How Argentines share a common mate. And Uruguayans hold their own close. I find the mate give to me by the friends I worked with there.  I find my bag of Yerba on the top shelf. Boil some water, Make some tea. Sip slowly with my bombilla. It’s late fall there now. I wonder how covid19 has impacted the mate ritual.  I allow the earthiness of the tea to comfort me awhile. Yerba is to tea as single malt is to scotch.

****

I hear through my window the sound of the jaunty Mister Softee ice cream truck. And the fora few minutes a duet with whining emergency sirens. It sees to have meaning at some visceral level. Sorry that I didn't record a sample for my new music composer friends. 

Mate

                        ****

What happened here?

I make my time in Morningside Park last. On my way out, notice the burned out carcass of a car. 

There must be a story

Many people stop to snap a picture. What happened here? Seriously? There must be a story….

***

My friends at Uni-Watch: the obsessive study of athletics aesthetics(long story)...have come up with a fitting pin for this time....

****

....in this together

The only  show on television in all its current forms that best portrays the struggle for faithful living in modern secular society is Ramy, starring Egytpian -America millennial standup artist Ramy Yourself. He’s fully integrated into life with his peers, a Jersey guy, as it were. But still seeking to be a faithful .In this he could just as easily be a Christian or Jew but through his unique particularity the universal is revealed.

  The show opens up in careful detail the conflicts and tensions of living as Muslim in the United States.  With very real differences, we also see how similar we are. To which one appropriately should say simply “duh”….It is very much appreciated to have pop culture portray taking God seriously, objectively. A life that is not to be stereotyped or romanticized but just is. It’s well worth a look, streaming  on Hulu.  Ramy also has an HBO stand up special the end of which took my breath away.  (Spoiler alert) In his final  scene he describes 9-11. How Americans turned against their Muslim neighbors. How the US responded by invading Iraq and conducting war in Afghanistan both of which continue 19 years later and have alienated most of the Arab and Muslim world.  US Muslim have turned toward each others and secular Muslims like Ramy pushed to reconnect with their Muslim  faith and identity. As he describes all this he stops, pauses, says, “Do you think….do you think…maybe…9/11 worked?” The audience gasps, he quickly goes back to another bit but the question stays with you, haunts you.                                                                                        

Living in coronavorusworld 67: We all need a strategy to the other side

5/29

Upper West Side gargoyle

I was very happy that on this week’s Gluey Zoomy Show, (https://www.facebook.com/events/everywhere/gluey-zoomy-show-live/) my friends Joel and Carrie (Hot Glue e& the Gun) read my letter and glued  my angelito from outsider artist Angel Romano to their art wall. (http://west-parkpress.blogspot.com/2013/04/angelitos.html ).

there's the angelito

  Their special music guest was a uniquely gifted Lauren Maul. (http://www.laurenmaul.org/)     And Chef Midnight offers us a recipe for ceviche and some guacamole as a bonus. 

My longtime friend David hit all the categories. Well into his 80’s, long time smoker, living in an assisted living facility….when he got diagnosed with Covid19 and sent to the hospital, it was easy to imagine he would not return.  Much to our surprise, he made it through to the other side. Miracles do happen even in coronavirusworld. 

Conversations with Presbyterians and Communists. We all need a strategy get to the other side. I get an invitation to preach my first sermon from quarantine this Sunday. 

Finish the final episode of  Mrs.America. The only problem was, I didn’t want it to end. (https://www.hulu.com/series/mrs-america-96f330fe-878d-412e-949f-fd8b69b3adf2?&cmp=11988&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=BM%20SEM%20Originals%20Suppression&utm_term=mrs%20america&gclid=CjwKCAjw5cL2BRASEiwAENqAPoKBBwHrZX3QuIEeCW_WvTFnpULCaN_GxyCMDdIS_LFZjm57oA1fChoCI-IQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds). It’s a very valuable  look at an important moment in American history, probably the peak of power for US women. It’s good to be reminded that the women’s movement was once bipartisan with active Republican participants like Jill Ruckelshaus and support of elected officials themselves.  Even Reagan himself felt he couldn’t afford to be explicitly anti-ERA.   We get to learn more of the individual personalities and differing  opinions of heroic leaders like Betty Friedan, Bella Abzug and Gloria Steinem.  It’s also close look at the complex and paradoxical character of Phyllis Schlafly. As leader of the anti-ERA movement, she was every bit the “working girl” that any of her feminist opponents were. It’s also important to see the path from Schlfafly’s movement to the takeover of the Republican Party by the extreme right and the coalescence of right wing forces that produced Trump. It helps us gain perspective on how we came to be  here. And also to know that in the last two years, the remaining states necessary to pass the ERA have come through.  The House has passed a resolution to rescind the deadline. Which of course, the Senate refuses to bring to action. 

I take a long walk to visit my friend RL. Hope to get strong enough to venture outside. Looking forward to it. Steady stream of bars  and restaurants reopening, Even a shoe repair shop.  But not our favorite St. James Gate. 

Add caption

Finally Muslim Comedian Ramy Youseff  (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramy_Youssef).  Takes us into the world of a modern American religious Muslim. A world we don’t often get to see. And we get to see ourselves from his perspective. He describes a date with a woman in a very short dress and high heels struggling across  street in winter, her carefully done hair blown about. How can they make them go out like that? He asks. (Irony noted.) Most controversally, he describes the effects of  the US response to 9-11. The prejudice in the US which caused many secular Muslims to seek out their faith community and strengthen their roots  as they felt othered by their long time communities and neighbors.  How the US’s interventions in Afghanistan and Iraq stenghtened  dislike (hatred) of US in the Arab  and Muslim 

worlds. So…did 9-11... work? He asks in his special’s most disturbing moment. 

Even with the talk of stronger together, we’ve never been more divided  since the  Civl War.