March 25, 2020
It’s almost time to travel again, I must get back to school and
the dorm. The international students who can’t go home now, need me
too. I’ll leave tomorrow, stopping to
overnight with my son. Push on then for a two-day drive: Tennessee to
Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois and Iowa. As
I check the infection map, I hope the route I take can avoid hotspots, allowing
my Escape capsule to deliver me uneventfully home where I will go into self-quarantine
for 14 days. That’s my intention.
Today’s observation - Have you notice how the boomers are taking
care of themselves? I have! We are
walking once or twice a day on wooded walkways, running along ridge trails,
doing yoga with our favorite YouTube teacher, shopping for ourselves and our
families at the early hours. On a walking trail today, I passed a pasty
fellow wearing his weighted vest, slow and steady in his gait - creases from
his C-pap mask straps, still visible on his cheeks. Off the Blue Ridge Parkway on a trail that circles a lake, I walked my Westie with boomers who ran laps around me or were briskly
walking their pooches too. We are determined to stay fit. Like Prince Charles, as likely as any to be
infected but not the most likely to be taken down. We won’t settle into that slot yet. The Woodstock Nation Abides Strong!
Today’s idea - I think the wild world is getting a much deserved
and needed respite from humankind. Think about it. Wild things can travel more with people cloistered in their homes, even make
innocent visits to human neighborhoods, a necessary widening of their
territories even if it is a temporary one. I am imagining everywhere; the
natural world is celebrating the hiatus from our industrialized invasions and exploitation. What if they held an all species summit, planning the next
infection, taking ideas and volunteers, voting about the best avenues for
infiltration, what could deliver the most human disruptions. They would
be giving high accommodations to the corona virus and its unexpected success.
They are hoping we will take a second and third look at how we move forward on
the day the Covid19 pandemic abates. I’m just saying - the wild things have
shown us, they can kick our booties into a dim tomorrow. I’m paying attention.
Today’s image - I
call my friends on the Standing Rock Reservation in North Dakota. I talk
with Rochelle. It is Lorenzo’s birthday, he’s 23 and back from Job Corp because
they had to close for a while like us. Yes, there have been
two cases reported on the res. One case
is a young man who went to Bismarck for a haircut, and he thinks he got
infected there. Some things never change. Rochelle is grinding sage and
cedar in her mortar bowl - an Indian antiviral and strong medicine for the
white man’s fever. She gave me a recipe for flat cedar tea: boil 1 teaspoon of
dried leaves to a quart of water and drink hot. Make sure to use it to
smudge your space too. I’ll ask my son
in Washington to send me a package, it grows in his area along the Sammamish coast.
I asked her what they need. She told me they are running out of
food. There are only a few grocery stores in
their area, most are closed and out of food. Last week they heard that the store closest to them got a new
owner, he did a give away, one bag of groceries to everyone who showed
up. They hopped in their car and drove
over to find that the give away was given out.
I asked her what she could use most now, she said meat. She liked
sardines with mustard sauce, Frank liked Vienna Sausages with crackers. A care package from Walmart is on the way, I hope it
will arrive soon enough and hold them over for a while. May the cedar sage tea keep them clean and
healthy. Biehciya! Stay strong and take courage!
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