anna read a suggestion that i think is a good idea as we live in & thru these strange days.  record it.  keep a journal.  take pictures.  make videos.  write poems.  compose music.  create in the chaos of fear & confusion.  for these are ways to keep our sanity.  this feels like a once-in-lifetime crisis.  when i asked friends how does the pandemic feel to them i get the answer: monumental; even larger than 9/11.  it is way too early to tell what changes might be wrought to bear upon us as a result of this virus.  but change is happening.  one thing is that we have discovered that the world can change in a moment.  i saw an article in which the writer was wistfully nostalgic of the relative stability of last month.

anna & took a walk in the late morning & later in the early evening.  the morning's walk on a beautiful spring day there seemed to be nothing out of sorts.  families were out walking too.  lots of people walking their dogs.  people were gardening & children were playing outside.  a cast of normality.  this pandemic made people rediscover the simple things like being out in the fresh spring air & strolling at their leisure.  even my sister-in-law texted me an article about how my beloved drive-ins are doing well because they were open & in the open air where families could watch a movie in the relative isolation of their vehicles.

but in the early evening the streets were empty.  bars & restaurants & shops were shuttered with signs on their doors & windows excusing their closing on the coronavirus.

it was eerie like we were walking in the first 20 minutes of an apocalyptic movie.  very few cars on the roads.  the liquor stores were open as were the gas stations.  what was normally a bustling bistro was dark & void.

such a strange sight for such a popular eatery that on a warm spring weekend night it was a ghost town.

but i think the stranger portion of these strange days is that feeling of unreality.  what was once a very normal activity such as going out to eat &/or drink turned into places of potential vectors.  we hit the pause button on past normality.  & if you get sick well there is a sign for that too.

anna & i are curious what sort of art shall be made from these soiled cloths.  how shall we tell these stories.  what poems to be made.  what music shall the virus light.  for we are pattern making story-telling creatures.  the virus just is & cares not who it infects as long as it is a stable body for a host.  but we shall do what we've always done make art in our way to make sense of the senseless.  we live in a world of cold calculation & random chance.  how we survive is by our making.  how we live is by the strength of our song our stories.