And I Said Nothing
They came for Lee and Jackson and I said nothing. They came for the St Andrew's Flag and I allowed them to take it down. They calumnied Columbus in textbooks and then defaced and beheaded his statue and I said nothing. They graffitied a Union black regiment and I said nothing. They defaced statues of Ulyses Grant, George Washington, Abraham Lincoln and I said nothing. They destroyed the statue of a spanish saint, Juni Serra, and I said nothing. There is talk that they will be coming for the capitalist Christ. There is talk that they will enter the churches and take out the stained glass of the politically incorrect Jesus. There is talk that the crucifix will not be safe. God guard me, guard all of us, bishops and priests and laymen, that we be not silent should that become what looks more and more like a certain eventuality.
The Buzzing at Ware Pond
The other day at Ware Pond I had a good day of observing wildlife: northern orioles in all their orange splendor, cottontail rabbits, locust trees still in their creamy white flowering, a painted turtle digging with her back legs a place to deposit her eggs, and finally a red winged blackbird male which buzzed me a number of time to the point I had to go to my knees. He actually got so close as to clip me. I am not an especially big or small human but compared to a red wing I am quite gigantic, I would even say menacingly so. And so I have to hand it to this father of his family that had such abundance of birdly testosterone to fly at me without the slightest fear. Or perhaps he did fear but overcame it and came at me regardless...all for the sake of his family. May I have just a bit of that kind of courage.
Corona Chemistry
With the masses wearing masks I think there is quite an extra benefit that no one to my knowledge has highlighted. Why, it is what I will call Corona Chemistry. With people breathing in their own carbon dioxide there is the great benefit to humanity's carbon footprint isn't there? My mind is settled and has been greatly relieved. After all I'm afraid I am still stuck on what seems now like a stale forgotten crisis. And yet the global fever must dwarf any fever we get individually from some minuscule virus? Probably there are many that have forgotten about global fever. I imagine this must dwarf all the latest crises that have claimed our attention. I must confess to be quite relieved with this new unexpected benefit from the new addition to the wardrobe of the mask. Its main benefit is the indirect and even unintended one to keep the planet's fever at safe levels. No need now to worry about the oceans rising, Antarctica melting, the polar ice caps dissolving into the warm waters of the Northern Atlantic---now that we are all recycling our own carbon dioxide. My anxiety is greatly relieved, relieved to the point that I may even try doing something that isn't essential. Perhaps I will try attending a church. After all I am quite thankful and feel the need to thank somebody beyond the governor. And perhaps I might with due diligence get up to speed with the latest crisis consuming our attention. But for now I'm keeping my eyes (albeit with less anxiety) on the earth's thermometer.
