Living in coronavirusworld 32: A much needed breath

4/24

Emergency

My walk today was framed by emergency vehicles.  As I walked down 114th, three police emergency vehicles filled the streets, emergency police entering a building.

Police responders

On my return, a fire department ambulance was on the street.

The United States has now lost more people to the coronavirus than any other country in the world. We’re number 1!  Nearing the death total for the Vietnam War.  Will their names be inscribed on a memorial inWashington.DC? After all, the President says he is a war time President. Will we honor the dead from this war? Casualties of our hubris? Incapacity to act or plan?   Meanwhile, the President’s comments grow more and more bizarre recommending sunlight and mainlining disinfectant cleaning products to kill the virus “in a minute..” And  no it was not sarcasm… Georgia wants to reopen barber shops  and beauty salons with social distancing. Chaotic patchwork reopening plans sprout around the country while crowds backed by the conservative evangelical money of the Prince and De Vos families, stirred up by the President, cry for liberty. Unlike Patrick Henry, this cry amounts to Give me liberty and give me death….and maybe yours too…. And over 400 a day continue to die in New York. Someone pointed out how after 9-11, the whole country joined in solidarity with New York.  Emergency workers drove all night for Kansas to help. One night while I was volunteering,  some guys from Louisiana showed up with  a truck load of  fresh jambalaya and xydeco.  Today it’s like everyone for themselves and screw you. Our social coherence has been deteriorated. 

Yesterday was the 50th anniversary of Earth Day.  I am talking via FaceTime with my friend, a Sardo Italiano.  First, he talks about how much more restrictive Italy’s quarantine  has been compared to ours. You need a specific written excuse to leave your home. You can only go 200 meters, etc. But then we talk about how nature, despite all our abuse, failure to care for the environment and unchecked consumption, has amazing resilience In less than two months, remarkable changes have taken place already. In India, people can see the Himalayas on the horizon for the first time in decades. Bird songs fill the air in Central Park. We begin to see it is possible to reverse the damage, bit by bit. Or maybe the lesson is nature will still be here when we have passed on. We’re giving the earth a chance to take a much needed breath.

We talk about what we build into each day to maintain our dignity, our sanity. Simple routines, like our walks. Our showers. Shaving (for Beppe). Cooking. I continue to recreate meals from my childhood as a way of comfort. Today I’m cooking a chili to serve over spaghetti. It’s a Cincinnati style, but also reminds me of Ike’s Chili Parlor in Tulsa. The idea of chili over spaghetti seemed, well, just wrong, when I first arrived there, but I learned to love it. 

On 111th Street, someone has placed a Christmas manger scene on a ledge above the recycling and garbage bins.  Homeless family, probably illegal. No masks….

111th Street

Once again, I host the West Park (virtual) Open Mic. Once again we have guests from Kazakhstan, where it is daybreak, joining us. Kosi joins us from Baltimore, I open with Lonely Hearts …or a sign that we all shall soon be released… Tony Charms dedicates Amazing Grace to all our essential workers and first responders…We sing, we visit. We complain. We laugh. We take turns until we are sung out.

Open Mic

Another day in coronavirusworld. 

Living in Coronavirusworld 31:" ...try to do what good lay in our power."

4/22

Good Question (Cathedral of St. John the Divine, 110th Street)

Our “underground group”…gathers again on ZOOM…over  coffee, of course.

Today’s hat of the day is a 1940’s  Oklahoma University hat commemorating the recent 25th anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing. 

Oklahoma

Brother Phelps reminds us of how hard it was for  people to stop thinking it had been done by an Arab or Muslims and realize it had been done by a whitebread American.   How President Bush’s iteration of “ we are good, they are evil.,” is the opposite of the  reformed theological tradition’s understanding that we are all sinners.  Has something to do with the continuing popularity of World War II movies where evil was so clear and we were on the side of right. 

Behind the protests demanding that the  country reopen is this attitude of “no one tells me what to do…” Typical of a six year old’s response to the world, says Phelps.  I respond that I have by nature a lifelong resistance to authority. That my natural tendency would be  to be out and about and not worry. But it was my awareness of what the impact of my actions might be on others that keeps me inside. “That’s the difference between a six year old and an adult’. Phelps responds.

It’s this ongoing American problem of the “rugged individual,” the fear of loss of control over one’s life and the failure to understand how what I do affects others.  The tension between “individual rights” and “social responsibility” which mirrors American evangelicals emphasis on individual salvation as opposed to stewardship of creation.  I describe the rush to reopen and the President’s goading as “extremely dangerous and potentially deadly” which brother Holton say would make a great t-shirt .

In talking about Camus’ the Plague, the similarities to our situation are striking. It’s moving that Camus’ humanism allows his priest, Father Paneloux, to grow.  The difference between his first two sermons is dramatic. And these words, to me, describe our task: No, we should go forward, groping our way through the darkness, stumbling perhaps at times, and try to do what good lay in our power.”  He had earlier spoke of the impact of children’s suffering and then said, “…who would dare assert that eternal happiness can compensate or a single moment’s human suffering?”  Another character, the journalist Rambert, desperate to escape and go to his lover, is transformed by his daily volunteer work and decides he must stay.  (Paneloux had said, “We all must be the one who stays…”) I share Camus’ humanism in that to me human solidarity in the face of struggle is the most sacred thing there is… And Steve Phelps says the Jesus of the gospels was a humanist...

Our plague, like Camus’ plague, is unveiling injustice. We can only hope, as Sam believes, that a new order will emerge.

Phelps points out that the two great crises of US history, the Civil War and the Great Depression, were preceded by weak Presidents, namely Buchanan and Hoover. Lincoln and Roosevelt were not “great” when they began, but grew into greatness in the facing of their crises. We can only hope for the same as we look to the future.

Clyde speaks of the quiet all around, like late summer in the city. Yes, I say, like it’s always August.  And I’m still waiting for Easter Sunday. 

                                                            ****

I look at the poster I received at the Penguins-Devils game in Newark on March 10th.  That was the last public event I attended. It's kind of a cool riff on a Batman "Bat Signal" theme, bit a little too Devilsphile for me to frame.  I get the sentiment, though.  We should send for Batman now.....

calling Batman

                                                             **** 

My friend Hugo, who works at one of the West Side Federation for Senior and Supportive Housing residences, has brought me a lot of food.  (Origin seems to be with unneeded airline food…) Way too many sandwiches, so I decide to share with Sam for her food project with the homeless. We’ll meet at 5 on. Broadway near the subway.

On the way there, a woman on the sidewalk on 116th asks me to “help her get a meal.” I at first say “no,”then realize I’ve got lunch bags so I go back and give her one. She takes the bag the says, “how about some money?“  I reply, “you said you were hungry, I gave you food…” 

I meet Sam on Broadway, We’re each wearing our masks.

Sam

An unmasked man, Hispanic, walks unsteadily over to us. “Quiere morir?” He says, “Quiere morir?” “No mi hermano, no. No me quiero morir.  Porque algien se quiere morir? No hay razon en eso..”   He tries other conversational ploys like “De donde viene?” And both Sam and I tell him we’re from Nueva York, But he keeps returning to “Quiere morir?” (Do you want to die?) and he’s clearly drunk and much too close.  We need to move on. 

There are more and more people on the street, more and more aggressive and desperate in their begging. Obviously, no one wants to get near.  I remind myself that there are free meals at Wadleigh High School across the street and around the corner from me every day between 11:30 and 1. 

George lived here...

On 110th, I pass the building where George and Ira Gershwin lived when they wrote Rhapsody in Blue. What you never knew....

I decide to walk home. Stop at the Silver Moon bakery and have my first pastry since Lent began. And an iced coffee. Walking up the street with the post apocalytic emptiness of Broadway, I think, “This is weird, this is just weird.”

weird, just weird

                                                                                                                                              ****

Wednesday night, my friends Joel and Carrie of ‘Hot Glue and the Gun”  host the second installment of their “Gluey, Zoomy Show.”  As someone comments in the chat flow, a combination of Kukla,Fran and Ollie, Sesame Street and Pee Wee’s Playhouse….” Man does someone else out there actually remember Kukla, Fran and Ollie?  They are hitting just the right place  for coronavrusworld. Especially ending with a dance party where we’re all invited to come on down and  hit the (virtual) floor. (http://www.hotglueandthegun.com/)

Meanwhile. My friend (and producer of my album) Luba Dvorak) continues his weekly “Quarantine Rambles” live from  Houston. (https://www.lubadvorak.com/)

Luba notices me in the room and mentions my album,”Robert Brashear: Songs Vol.1” (cdBaby, iTunes, Amazon, Spotify..) Thank you, Luba. His “Brooklyn Twang” Americana goes down easy.

                                                                                                              ****

Thursday, my mom’s assisted care facility is setting up ZOOM calls for their residents. We’ve only got ten minutes. By the time we get set up, it’s all but over.  We’ll try again next week…

Late afternoon, go down to RL’s for a “Tribal Council” to introduce RL to ZOOM and talk about present and future Open Mic projects. We will be joined by Steve Blane, my friend and frequent collaborator.  RL’s is about the only place I would venture into. Almost hermetically sealed except for Dion’s daily visits.  On the way, I stop at the darkened “Hi Life” for a double bourbon to take with me. Even though it’s perfectly legal, the dark art eco interior and empty bar gives it all a kind shady feeling. RL sends Dion and I home by cab. 

Another day in coronavirusworld.

Living in coronavirusworld 30: The Plot Against America

4/21

The Plot Against America

I find that after a day with a lot of hours spent on ZOOM, I need t retreat. To unconnected, And be here with myself.  I also find myself cooking food from my  childhood. I found my grandmother's cookbook and realized that many of my mother's go to recipes are there. So in this time of crisis, I return to the kitchen to recreate what sustained me through my childhood. 

Today’s long walk takes me through Harlem and the Upper West Side to check on my prescriptions.  I wanted to pass through one of my favorite places, the community garden on 89th. But it is closed.

the garden is closed

\

I note that Barney Greengrass is now shuttered, not reopening after his annual Passover week vacation. The Kirsch bakery has given up as well.  Only the top shelf butcher shop remains open. I take the 7 bus home. 

The quiet day, understanding the new contextual understanding of that term, gives me the chance to finish HBO’s limited six episode series of Philip Roth’s the Plot Against America.  Roth’s novel, from 2004, is an alt history speculative fiction in which Charles Lindbergh runs for President in 1940 and defeats Franklin Roosevelt on platform of keeping America out of war. Lindbergh signs an agreement with Hitler and slowly unleashes the hidden hatreds and fears of America into an increasingly fascist reality. Roth is essentially taking his own fears and anxieties of growing up in Newark, New Jersey as a Jewish kid in the 1940’s amplified by a plausible historic shift.

The HBO version faithfully portrays Roth’s basic story. As such it joins a growing list of dystopian prophetic calls for awareness from Handmaid’s Tale to The Man in the High Castle to Watchmen, each with their own unique take on where we are and where we could be headed. Each deserve their  own analysis. The growth of this genre can only speak to the growing  cultural anxiety of where we are now as a nation. 

In Plot…, we see each believable step leading to the dismantling of democracy. Like in Germany, Jews who thought they were fully part of this country, learning how vulnerable they all were all along.  Perhaps the most tragic character is Rabbi Bengelsdorf.  Wonderfully portrayed by John Torturro, we can see the rabbi not as someone simply out for personal gain, but truly believing he was keeping Americans out of war and doing the best to integrate his people into American mainstream by actively supporting and working for Lindbergh. In the end, all he did was provide a distracting  cover for the true fascist agenda of Lindbergh. When Lindbergh’s plane disappears, Blame is placed on the Jews and even Rabbi Bengelsdorf, “  a Jewish Rasputin” in the words of Secretary of the Interior Henry Ford, is taken into custody,

In Roth’s novel, the words of Anne Lindbergh and the overreaching of the administration lead to the removal of acting President Burton Wheeler  and the calling of a special election which is won by Roosevelt and the all things return to realty as we have known it. The brilliance of HBO (and David Simon’s) revision of Roth’s ending is breathtaking. (Spoiler alert.) The HBO version ends with the election. There are scenes of voter intimidation and suppression and the burning of ballots. It is unclear if there will still be enough votes to elect Roosevelt. The end. The message for us is unmistakeable. We are at a critical crossroads in this country. It can go one way or the other. When one says the message is, it can happen here, one rational response is it already has. What happens next is vitally important. One can only hope for enough wisdom and courage to keep ay real sense of democracy alive. Our fate is in our hands.

Living in coronavirusworld 29: Do not be afraid

4/20

Blvd Bistro, Harlem

Our International Sanctuary group gathers from New York, Tucson, Cleveland. Toronto, Berlin…we’ve been meeting on ZOOM for at last  5 years, long before it became everybody’s second home.  We’re here to hear how Covid19 is affecting  the refugees and immigrants we work with.  We learn:

* Both US borders are completely shut down

* People caught in on US side are returned within the hour

* Shelters on the Mexico side are full and new returnees have no place to go

* No Mas Muertos and the Samaritans are encountering more and more people in the most deadly  part of the Sonora desert as legal crossings shut down

* Detention Centers are filled to capacity with no possibility of social distancing  or sanitation

* The ACLU has undertaken release cases for the most vulnerable, eg pregnant women, etc.

* In Upstate New York, Project Faro is trying to advocate for immigrants who have made it to this part of the state. A car protest was organized in Albany with circling cars and beeping horns

* The director of Stony Points struggling to figure out how to deal with 50 staff and 20 volunteers and no income while still seeking to respond to issues like the nearby Orange City detention center. 

* Canada has essentially sealed itself off. Refugees crossing  has slowed to a trickle. The closed border has ben extended until the end of may. There I san effort to find people who have areal claim tomato regardognpolitical asylum. And a real desire to open the US-Canada border again.

* The Mediterranean becomes ever more dangerous. Over Easter, one boat with over 150 refugees was denied entry to any port for over two weeks.  It was finally transferred  to the Red Cross

* Malta continues to  turn boats away. One recent case resulted in 8 dead and 5 missing from a turned way boat.

* On the other hand, Greece has reopened for asylum seekers

* Even so, hundreds of asylum seekers are trapped on the isle of  Lesbos

* The military is securing the seaports in Sicily and isolating camps and detention centers

* In Germany, detainees with little food and no transportation out of their centers have begun a hunger strike

* Where detainees have no sanitation and little water people are begining to organize themselves 

* In Ohio, in Cleveland and Toledo, there’s a real slow down in people seeking to cross over US’s “north coast” to Canada.  Over 20% of all Covid cases in Ohio are in the penal system and a “Free Them All” effort has begun

There is a great sense of frustration in NewYork State. On the one hand, our Governor Cuomo has risen to the occasion and become the kind of focused organized and compassionate leader we  lack at the national level, with dignity and directness defending himself against the virulent tweets of the President. On the other, he has done nothing to  address the issue of people in the prison system who should  be released especially the elderly, let alone  the states detention centers .How to  effectvley pressure him for change remains an issue.

                                                                                                   ****

When I hear people compare  the protestors demanding a reopening to Civil Rights icon Rosa Parks,  I want to scream.  First  of all, Rosa Parks was protesting a national history of systemic injustice and inequality.  This lockdown is little more than a month and is anything but systemic. More importantly, it is not about “liberty.”  Your right to “freedom of assembly” does not -and cannot -  extend to the rich to potentially infect me or my loved ones  with a potentially fatal virus. This kind of  bravado is as arrogant as it is ignorant, not to mention dangerous. Doubly offensive when you consider the impact of this virus on people of color, comparatively  speaking. Liberate Michigan, liberate Minnesota, liberate Virgina…

                                                                                                   ****

Tonight’s West-Park Bible Study, with a pause for the 7 PM “clap” of course, is on John 20: 19-31, otherwise known   as the Doubting Thomas story. Even though the disciples had heard Mary’s testimony, they were afraid,. It’s important to note that when John say “Jews, ” he means “authorities.” The disciples too, after all, were Jews. We’re in the time of the late 2nd century, Christians are beginning to be expelled from synagogues as their testimony begins to sound more and more cult-like and out of line, theologically. Many Christians want to remain with the synagogue (12:42-43)  and even some  surreptitiously, like Joseph of Arimathea, 19:31, who gives Jesus a burial place.  That bitter hostility underlies this gospel.

Jesus appears and greets them with Peace, recalling 14:27 where he said,  Peace I leave with you…don’t let your hearts be trouble , neither let them be afraid…words we need to hear again right now. Even though he had been resurrected and can apparently pass through walls, the marks of his crucifixion are still clear. One would have thought a resurrected body would be perfect. But the point is this…it was Jesus’ crucifixion that is the center of his identity, , not the resurrection. Jesus’ crucifixion broke once and for all the power of death to intimidate. 

He is sending them, even as he was sent. Then he breathes on them, this becomes John’s version of Pentecost with the visitation of the Holy Sprit. (Not so good in Coronasvirusworld) Recalling Genesis 2:7 where God breathes into the nostrils of the Adam God  has created.

We talk about this power to “forgive and retain sins.”  What’s clear is that not forgiving continues to bind both parties. To the one who has been hurt, it’s away of holding on. To what was or could have been. Forgiveness is required to move on. 

And now Thomas. And Jesus passing through walls again. Thomas was the one who’d said, “Let us go , that we may die with him”(11:16) and also ‘Lord, we do no know where you are going. How can we know the way?” (14:5) which opens the door for Jesus to say “I am the way the truth and the life. No one comes to the father except by me.” As Marsha says, Thomas is wise and resolute. A much better guy to build your community around than Peter with his complete lack of impulse control. Thomas’s need to see for himself is on behalf of all of us, he is our stand in. And again, it is the marks, the signs, that covince him. 

When the passage speaks of “,…and other signs…” (30-31), the book probably ended here. Whatever they were would make a most interesting  book. This book was most likely written to strengthen the faith of an existing community in hard times. The word “Come to believe (31) can just as easily be translated “continue to believe.”

Even before the Coronavirus, we were experiencing a growing alienation from the greater institutional church body.  A growing gap  between large and small , rich and poor.  Likewise a growing sense alienation from our own country’s political institutions. In Coronavirustime, our sense of exile, fear and doubt only increase. At this tine, the presence of a Jesus who still bear the marks of his crucifixion who can say to us “do not fear” is a comforting, a strengthening presence.  John’s gospel exists to strengthen the body. Anything we can do to strengthen the body is a form of protest against what has come to be accepted 

Marsha reports that Manhattan Together, the Community Organizing group, has started a  fund  to support restaurant workers. 

It has been good to be together. 

                                                                                                             ****

As is typical these days, About  half the songs offered in my songwriters workshop, or more, deal wit the virus. I always feel somewhat intimidated by people who have given their  whole lives to music. Given their all to  try make it as  musicians. As a writer,  I have not done that. I sometimes feel like an interloper. But they like what I’ve done with “I don’t roll that way.” And have some more helpful suggestions. 

“ I feel  like it’s late and getting darker everyday.” 

Living in coronavirusworld 28: Love your mother

4/19

"Love your mother"

I spend the morning on a quest to find a Sunday Times. Six days week I read it online but one day a week, I want an actual paper newspaper to sit down and spread out with while I drink my coffee. And I need the magazine to do the Sunday crossword puzzle. I make 4 trips to the corner deli where I usually buy my Times and it hasn't been  deliverd.  Truth be told, the Times performance record in Harlem is sketchy even in normal times. When I had a Sunday subscription, only about half the time or less d d I actually receive both sections of the Sunday  Times. So I subway up to 125th to look for a newsstand and when  I get there,  it’s shut down.  72nd street is next. On the train, an aggressive homeless person is getting  in people’s  faces asking for money. An action that is usually met with annoyance or disinterst in coronavirusworld strikes terror and/or rage. He leans towards me and I motion him away, emphatically. It's not a good market for panhandling.   I exit at 72nd and find the newsstand shut down. As I ponder my next move, I spy another one block south. So I buy my Times. Persistence pays off. 

I decide to bus home. Times under my arm, I cross the street and discover that Papaya King has closed. For several weeks they bravely soldiered on, this quirky  iconic New York emporium of hot dogs and "nature’s health potion”  and their Recession special.  Now even Papaya King has given up the struggle. 

This is the 25th anniversary of the Oklahoma City terrorist bombing. Committed by Gulf War veteran Timothy McVeigh and accomplices on the anniversary of the government attack on the Branch Davidians in Waco, Texas. I68 dead, 680 wounded. McVeigh, white, army vet, and anti-government militia supporter. Typical of the kind of people Trump likes to stir up. We don’t talk much about Oklahoma City because it doesn’t fit our terrorist narrative. 

In Upper West Side nursing homes, 20 dead at Amsterdam Houses and 21 at the Jewish Home.

Our family gathers on ZOOM, Micah joining  us from Berlin. We talk mainly about the virus and cooking. Dan sees us screwed for at least 4 more year if not more, because Biden is ,in his estimation, no better. Neoliberal economics tied to, beholden to big business. Surprisingly, the  usually cynical Nate patiently outlines the importance  of  getting Trump out, if only because  of Supreme (and) other court nominees and the damage they can do, for a generation. I bring up that Sanders has enough clout delegatewise to have a significant impact on the party platform. Micah, the furthest left in the family, actually sees hope in the fact that we are at an unprecedented moment. As many as 40 million unemployed in the US and a global economy in free fall. The isolated rich totally dependent on working people to keep them supplied with their basic needs. What if they just stop? Micah asks. We all know we are in for a logn haul. Who knows what’s on the other side? Even before the virus, even conservative economic analysts have said that the current level of income equity, the worst since the”golden age”of the 1920’s, is  unsustainable. Maybe as people rise up, something new can emerge Nate sees no evidence in his lifetime that this could happen. And Micah reminds him, nothing like this has happened in your lifetime.  I think either we find a new way of doing things or it will eventually collapse. Andrea points out that only Alexandria Ocasio  -Cortez has called out the stimulus plan for what it is, another money siphon to the already rich, 

Micah describes  how Germany is testing for antibodies, teams going out to test. The carefully staged reopening. Meanwhile, in the US, chaos reigns as every governor has to figure out for themselves what they will do. There are regional consortiums coming together . We are divided like nothing we’ve seen since the Civil War.  Micah has never been so glad for the sake of his family, to not live in the US. We live in essentially a failed state. If we make it through, it won’t be because of a carefully thought out strategic plan, but because of dumb luck, the persistence of thousand of courageous workers risking their lives and the grace of God.  It’s a sobering discussion, but good to be together. 

On the edge of Morningside Park , I see another memorial. Votive candles, ribbons, pictures…  

memorial

With people essentially banned from funerals, only one person allowed to go to cemeteries, these popular memorials are one way of expressing grief, I see a ribbon that says, “Love your mother..” I think of my mother, confined to her room at her assisted living facility. I think of mothers I know who have died in the last couple of weeks. Love  you mother. 

A mother is flying a kite with her child. I love the way it reaches up, seeking the sky.  I remember the day of 100 kites at the protests at Plaza Italia in Santiago, Chile last October.  We reach from where we are…

flying a kite

Our Sunday night Songwriters Open Mic  gathers hosted by CC Eve in Montreal. She too, lucky to be in an organized country. W ear our songs with one another. I’ve got a new version of my song, “Don’t roll that way” with coronavirus words added:

Don’t Roll that Way

We live in a country that separates parents from their kids

Puts children into cages and tries to keep it all hid

Even take rosary beads from detainees and send them on their way

All I can say is I don’t roll that way

The impeachment hoax was just a waste of time

You looked for quid pro quo and you never could find

If the President does it, it’s not illegal. You’re not the first to say

All I can say is I don’t roll that way..

I don’t roll the way

This is not what I believe

Not the way I was raised

I feel like its late an getting darker every day

All I can say is I don’t roll that way.

This Corona virus has us all inside

We can run, we can run but we sure as hell can’t hide

‘Hey everybody cine on out and play” I heard the President say.

AllI can say is, I don’t roll that way.

I don’t…….

Hey Governors, do what you want, s all okay

Every one for themselves, that’s the American way.

And I’m not responsible, I heard the President say

All I can say is I don’t roll  that way

I don’t……

Harlem gargoyle...sometimes it feels like that

We need to talk as much as we need to sing.  How long can we make it? When can we perform again to live audiences? Will any clubs survive? How will life be different? It’s good being with one another. Even though it’s hard to be cheerful. As artists, what can we do? We’re each trying to create  our own platforms for performance. Every act of creation, creativity, an act of resistance.  

Living in cornavirusworld 27: Not yet

4/18

ubiquitous

My friend Susan is the Director of Operations for the Fellowship Of Reconciliation (https://www.forusa.org/) based at the Stony Point Conference Center.    (https://stonypointcenter.org/).   She is also a member fo the Stony Point based Community of Living Traditions, three separate but linked together intentional communities from the three Abrahamic traditions, Christian, Muslim and Jewish, living their own unique and distinct community  lives while also internally linked one with one another.(https://stonypointcenter.org/multifaith-community/multifaith-residency) We serve together on the leadership team of the International Sanctuary Declaration leadership team, working for internationally recognized protocols for just migration. We spent a wonderful day traveling to a quiet fishing  village while waiting  to travel to Berlin after checking out the situation with refugees in Sicily.  We are meeting discuss Monday’s ISD meeting.  This coronavirusworld has been hard on Stony Point. When you’re a conference center, your income depends on conferences and with this reality , that means you are closed for the duration.  And as the CLT served staff functions at the Center and were paid from that income, they are clearly in an extremely vulnerable position. There is a question as to how long the national Presbyterian Church (ultimately the owners of Stony Point) can carry the CLT people financially. It’s hard.

Normally, I would have shaved on Easter ending  my Lenten beard.  But this year I can’t do it. As long as I feel stuck in Saturday the day between Good Friday and Easter Sunday, I can’t do it, Not yet.

My friend Stephen calls from Florida to ask about me serving on a panel for his continuing ed program for medical professionals. I would be  reflecting on the spiritual aspects of our struggle with the virus. I agree, as it should be  a good conversation.,

Harlem’s "Lee Lee" Rugelach stop is still open.

"..by a brother..".

One unique touch of normalcy:

Tony Shalhoub and his wife Brooke Adam do a live online performance of Steve Sachs’ Bakersfield Mist, a two hander perfect for residential theatre companies. Basic story: a woman who lives in a trailer camp, thinks she’s got an authentic Jackson Pollack. A former Metropolitan Museum director comes to check it out. We get probably the best expression of what Pollock is all about and an entertaining classic conflict between two very different personalities around the question of what is authentic, in art and life. 

                                                             Safety Dance

                                                                    Lean on Me

The night ends with One Word Together at Home, one of those star studded events to celebrate the  workers who are keeping us going…Lady Gaga curated, Jimmy,Jimmy and Stephen hosted. There was Paul Mc Carttney and Elton John and Billie Eilish and a host of others. Jimmy Fallon and the Roots did “Safety Dance” and doctors and nurses joined in. the dance from  hospitals all across the country. Stevie Wonder did Lean on Me.   Seeing the medical workers choked me up as did the finale  wit  Lady Gag, Celine Dion, Lang Lang, John. Legend  and Andrea Bocelli with the Prayer. I felt it one more time. Over $50 million was raised. 

                                                        Prayer

We're all doing what we can.....