0 to weird in 1.5 days

to use a phrase i heard on PBS News Hour this was a week like no other.  i mentioned the strangeness i - we - are experiencing in our young century.  last night i wrote about the bare shelves at the grocery stores.  but tonight was a different thing altogether.  i went back to the store to pick up a few items.  i am astonished by what i witnessed.  everything from fresh produce - i love bananas & there were none to be had! - to canned & frozen foods, cleaning products, even pet food, was either gone or quickly vanishing.  & paper products, pooft!, absolutely empty aisle  there was a weird vibe too hanging in the air.  an end-of-days kinda of vibe.  

it ain't the end-of-days but this is the first pandemic i've - we've - experienced.  like i wrote last night humanity has suffered from & thru war, famine & disease before, but this one is the first for all of us.  & the health experts tell us that we are just at the beginning.  the arithmetic of exponents is at work.  a doubling every few days. the rate of infections may slow come the warmer months but this particular strain of coronavirus is gonna be with us for a long while.

what to make of it all?  as i said, listen to the scientists.  & don't fucking panic.  what this pandemic proves is that we are an interconnected species & cultures.  we cannot wall ourselves out of this.  we are one species living on a single planet breathing the same air, eating the same foods, & wanting the same things.  like love, acceptance, understanding, compassion.  i am as flummoxed as all the rest of us.  this pandemic also proves that we should not take anything for granted because the rate of change happens in microseconds.  a month ago this seemed like a problem outside the u.s.  now, we are facing 1000s of infections & many deaths.

this shit is weird.  i am not afraid.  but my level of alarm is elevated.  i have not seen this kind of thing in my lifetime.  don't fucking panic.  i am not an expert of any kind but a poet, & a human being, who is in this world till my bitter, or sweet, end.  LISTEN TO THE SCIENTISTS.  & remember that we are all one species, homo sapiens, living on a small rock in the vast cosmos.  together.

as douglas adams said in his hitchhikers guide to the galaxy trilogy:

DON'T PANIC!

sage advice.  now i'm gonna get back to my deep dive into the shallow pool of youtube videos.

peace mi brothers, sisters & non-binaries.