glass sculpture by Chihuly
I began coughing Dec 14th and am still coughing a month later. It has weakened me and I'm unsteady on my legs. Hearing from many friends who are also enduring re-bouts of Covid, RSV and other respiratory distresses. My suspicion is it's due to the growing pollution in the world of an abused planet. Not only do we endure an increasing number of global disasters adding to declining air quality, but in winter even the air in our homes is more and more challenged. It is a hard nut to accept that we can be allergic to our own places of safety. Still trying with my doctors to ascertain a diagnosis for the source of what has been a long irritant rendering me largely unable to do much of anything for way too long. Still dependent on the many folks who continue to step up and help me age in place a while longer.
What’s more, even the required on-line shopping I have enjoyed since the accident has become fraught with impediments. They keep trying to improve their websites and often only create more problems. Recently Walgreens added a "same day delivery" button that if you don't click on it you are automatically signed up - and then the order gets cancelled because things are no longer available. Every damn shopping site inundates you with immediate surveys about "how'd we do? how'd we do?" as if you letting them know would actually make any difference. The internet is a needy damn entity. It demands more and more time and attention.
Not to mention the strange and awful state of our politics. Why has nobody figured out how to counter the Trump lies? His criminal intentions are wide open and somehow he continues to gather followers. It is a sorry state to see the powers for good being daily swamped by the forked tongues of the gullible among us who have bought into this long con for the soul of our country. I fear for a future with a Christian Nationalist minority in charge. We will have become the Taliban, punishing non-believers and marginalizing women.
With all these boulders in the road of getting on with it, one has to work doubly hard to find the openings through which to wriggle and to see the half-fullness of the glass. For me this always comes to appreciation for all of you and the many angels who have come to my rescue in a myriad of ways for years. With so many acts of kind generosity, it is impossible to allow a downward spiral to take me.
Special thanks to writer friends who are also trying to make sense of long life - Ruth Barnes, Van Galligan, Stephen Foreman, Wayne Robins, Robert Coe, Jeff Slayton.