A long time ago, on an overnight flight back in the days when in-flight entertainment was limited to one movie and a few random channels of music options, I wrestled with a sleepless moment in a darkened United cabin and searched for music that would help me shut my eyes for a few hours. I settled on opera, believing that songs performed in a language I did not know would help me shut out the world.
Someone, somewhere, is injecting bleach. Just saying. There's always one. I cannot currently splurge on a night out at Hanna's steakhouse here in RSM. There's takeout, but it's not the same. There are also takeout cocktails in mason jars, which is interesting because the cocktail is such an easy DIY thing. I think the fact that this exists speaks to the normalcy we all crave, where a steady handed bartender crafts a concoction of this and that before your very eyes.
Is it just me, or is anyone else wondering what Isis is up to these days? They're probably sheltering in place, just as desperate for social interaction as the rest of us. But who knows. Maybe they're all reassessing their lives and deciding to pursue a higher calling when all this is over. Maybe the terror thing has lost its luster and they're looking for a career change.
If I was president (and what historian wouldn't want to sit behind the Resolute desk?), this current state of pandemic would be catnip. I would be Churchillian in my oration, telling people the full truth of what's happening and then stirring them to band together and work as a nation to defeat this monumental threat.
Back from France. United Airlines flight 935 touched down at LAX last night right around rush hour. Callie and I spent ten great days overseas, starting with three in Paris, three more on the Breton coast tracking the movements of General George Patton in August 1944, and then three final days in London . . .
I took Django to the dog park today. What used to be a chore is now an escape, so I sat on a bench as he trotted around with other dogs, check and rechecking my social media, because that's the only form of outside connection these days. If I had to estimate the difference in screen time from two weeks ago to now, the difference would not be measured in minutes, but in passion: from "enthusiastic" to "obsessed.”
I don't want to write about the coronavirus. It's all anyone is talking about and it would be nice to focus on some other sentiment. Having said that, NOT writing about the pandemic is putting my head in the sand. So in the name of being present and mindful, here are a few thoughts about life during wartime.
