Day 253 – 11/23/2020
Everything from the sublime to the ridiculous makes me cry now. For months into the pandemic I couldn’t keep my head corralled long enough to read a book, and since I got back to it every one I’ve picked up has made me shed good tears, from Alice McDermott’s After This, to Barlow Adams’ Appalachian Alchemy, to the book I finished today The World Without You by Joshua Henkin, which had me sobbing more than once. Even when I have trouble sticking with them, I can’t imagine a world without all the books we want to read – they’re the best thing for taking us from here to there, and I have a big need for that.
It feels all wrong for this to be Thanksgiving week when it should still be summer. Since we’ve never made a big deal of holidays beyond our first Christmas together, the solitude of this holiday season will affect us less than most. And they’re 24-hour days like any other – they pass. Blessings on them all, I malign no traditions.
At least once a week someone asks on Facebook or Twitter “Do you personally know anyone who’s died from COVID?” Rod A, who was a year behind me all the way through school, died a few months ago, and last night I was notified that Loren D, a friend from another lifetime, had died of the virus in Hutchinson’s Stormont-Vail Hospital. There have been friends of friends, parents of friends, but these two I knew well. The longer it’s allowed to rage uncontrolled the more people we’re going to lose and my sense is that it will become real to every one of us before it’s over.
Wet out this morning and just above freezing. There are days when the gray skies put me under. Hope this won’t be one of them.
Playing for Time 
Nov 23, 2020 @ 11:15:03
My phone tells me it’s 37 degrees out there, but the rain has turned to sleet here. I just heard a branch from the elm fall out there, I’m hoping that’s the only thing that gets downed during this sleet meet.
And, I’m with you on the book topic. What would we do without them?
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Nov 23, 2020 @ 11:50:55
It would be awful. Most of the time the talking heads on TV kick my anxiety into high gear, just the sound of them – and I usually keep it too low to even discern what they’re saying. So I shut my ears off and read.
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