Thursday, May 20, 2021

Glorious Song of Brood X Cicadas as we Emerge from Lockdown

 

Every seventeen years billions of Brood X (10) cicadas emerge to procreate along the Mid Atlantic. This evening, as I was driving home with the top down on my convertible up Route 522 outside Winchester, Virginia I suddenly noticed the delightful choir of cicadas seeking mates. In areas where these amazing insects emerge, their song can be deafening, often exceeding 100 decibels. 

As I roared up to our ridge, the sounds of the cicadas made me feel joyful with the awareness that despite our 14 months of lockdown, the cycle of life continues. Nature prevails yet again and shows us the natural wonders of our world. I first noticed a bit of a roar this afternoon while sitting at my desk with the windows open. I truly thought my essential oils diffuser was making an unusual racket. The sound seemed at a distance. The cicadas have just begun to emerge on our ridge. It is amazing that occasionally I feel as if I can hear an individual song. Could it be? 

This is my second experience with Brood X, which last emerged to sing in 2004. I recall then driving along the Baltimore Washington Parkway, the trees dark with cicadas, the thunderous sounds filling the air, my psyche filled with amazement that bugs could make so much noise! My life was so different then. 

The thought of these  prehistoric insects connecting us with the past, helping us to celebrate life in the present, and reminding us of the continuum of nature through time, is magical.I’m sitting on my deck with a glass of  sparkling Alsace rose celebrating the delights of all our earth has to offer. I wish more people would stop and listen to the cicadas and forget about politics and dissent for just a while.


Sunday, May 16, 2021

Emerging From The Idiocy of COVID Lockdown

 


If nothing else, the Centers for Disease Control and the political establishment showed "we the people" that "science" is flexible depending on the agenda and that all COVID restrictions have been political. How many small businesses collapsed because of government interference! How many independent restaurants closed! This issue is close to home because my yoga studio and Pilates studio were unable to survive the forced closures followed by limited re-openings with social distancing. Really, if 80% of stopping the spread of a virus - including flu and COVID - involves hand-washing. Add a mask and common sense and every small business could have safely stayed open and thriving. Instead, the hopes and dreams of many main street Americans, including immigrants, fell victim to the politicization of the virus.

And what of the millions of school children and college students that lost an entire year of in -person teaching, socialization, engagement, sports, extra curricular activities, and growth? Some of the most at risk children will never regain what was lost! Hopefully, the American public will remember the teachers' unions that abandoned their students while lobbying for additional benefits and public support.

The hypocrisy and hubris of the media, political class, unions, educators, social activists, do-gooders, talking heads, protesters, apologists, and state courts has been mind numbing. Schools were closed, but cigarette factories were deemed essential businesses. Liquor stores stayed open, but restaurants had to close. Wineries could not have tastings, but fast food joints stayed open. Hair and nail salons closed, but convenience stores stayed open, 

States and businesses used COVID as an excuse to automate and replace humans with machines. Do you think the toll operators will ever rehire people to sit at a toll booth? Think fast food restaurants will ever replace the ordering kiosks with order takers /cashiers? Especially if such businesses are required to pay $15 per hour!

So, "celebrities" argue that the brilliant capitalist pharmaceutical companies and scientists that created several effective vaccines in less than a year to combat the virus should share their research with the world! I don't see those hypocrites donating millions of their own dollars to support research and development! There is a reason nobody watches these self -obsessed, self congratulatory, under educated morons self congratulate any longer. 

If nothing else, COVID has taught many of us the value of our families, immediate circle of friends, letting go of social media, turning off the partisan news, the beauty of home, the gloriousness of the family unit, and the celebration of the truly essential workers: truck drivers, grocery store workers, meat packers, farmers, bus drivers, train engineers, nurses, doctors, janitors, retail workers, butchers, factory workers, EMTs, tutors, vintners, and Amazon! Sorry, folks, Jeff Bezos deserves his billions!

Now, I've been vaccinated. I had my hair sheared short. One of the cats died. The truck died. We bought a 1946 Hudson convertible.  We celebrated our15th wedding anniversary and my dad's 89th birthday. I've decided I'm okay with facing the final years of my career without opportunity. I bought a Pilates reformer to practice at home, a new iPhone and new iPad. I've started planning for retirement- thinking about moving to a place that tends to reject extremism. I've unfriended on social media those that want to argue with everything I say. 

I'm looking for peace and contentment.