Sunday June 28, 2020. I am musing on the power of youth as my friend Avery J turned 30 years young yesterday. I say years young because youth is so fulfilling and fleeting all the same. We live those years with some vim and vigor. Seeking all there is to be sought and we live and dream and kick and scream through it all. Here is Avery as we jammed on a music/poetry project:
The pain and glory. The triumphs and the tribulations. The climbs and the falls. We look through a lens that is tinted with hopes and dreams and plans and schemes and all the while we have our eyes on a prize. The goal in our hearts and we sacrifice for it and in the reaching we die a little along the way and are reborn with each leap of faith we take. We journey through time zones and scatter friends around the world. Leaving bits and chunks of ourselves here and there. We exchange fluids and opinions and rage on in defense of our good fight. For our souls to be dipped in the evils evening and cleansed anew each morning by the soft sun. We salute the morning and breathe a sigh to the gods of our mind. For each and every person holds a spirit close to them to guide them and replenish their own light, lest the dark take over. The balance of it all.
May we never waver from our inner god, our internal worship and the energy flowing through our veins. Speed and safety can hold hands if we bribe each one confidently and consistently.
"Luck is the savior for the few but a demon for the masses."-MICHAEL TITORENKO, Verses for the Down and Out
We reached two milestones today both of which are not positive in nature. We have reported over 10 million coronavirus cases worldwide and surpassed 500,000 deaths. We also reported an all-time high in number of daily cases with 194,190. Truly a monumentally sad day in this pandemic history. In the United States, both Florida and Texas are backing off their next phase of reopening and closing bars while New Mexico has also halted it's reopening next steps. Some states fear hospitals may be overwhelmed, not in the fall, but this week. The fear of a second wave is a future thought now as the nation presently continues to struggle with the first wave.
In the middle of all this we have a presidential administration which appears to be clueless and narcissistic. According to the Washington Post, "The Trump administration asked the Supreme Court to overturn the entire Obama-era Affordable Care Act, which would fulfill one of President Trump's campaign promises and leave more than 23 million Americans uninsured in the middle of a health crisis. " It is no wonder people are panicking and anxious during these times. The hope lies in the fact that it is an election year. Make your voice be heard and vote.
In positive news: Nature has been an anecdote for isolation and anxiety during the pandemic as many have taken to walking and getting into the great outdoors for solace of mind and body. Poets have long understand the healing powers of the natural elements and thus written about the beauty and cure found in being close to the earth and all it offers. From forests to deserts, oceans to mountains, rivers to ponds and gardens to jungles we all have our favorites. The following link is to a website entitled brain pickings and offers wonderful articles about humanism and the pondering of life through a literary lens. Enjoy these musings on nature by such profound poets as Whitman, Keats, Thoreau and others not so well known, but just as powerful, Lorraine Hansberry and Rachel Carson. Fight off the doldrums with the power of sunsets, flowers and cloudless skies. Each has the ability to transform your mind to place of tranquility and hope.... https://www.brainpickings.org/2020/06/14/nature-depression/
This is an excerpt from a poem by Jane Hirshfield, The Weighing:
So few grains of happiness
measured against all the dark
and still the scales balance.
The world asks of us
only the strength we have and we give it.
Then it asks more, and we give it.
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