Vignettes from the Ever-Lasting Now

BNormal, Illinois April 28, 2020   I just got back from Kroger’s after I first walked downtown to drop off recycling, and then turned around to go north past the dollar store to Kroger’s. I had a little adventure when I stopped at a point more than hallway back to wait for the bus because I was tired: A little but muscular black guy in a tank top and a pork pie hat, to whom I have given a little money in the past, was talking nonstop to a nice plain young black woman, and she really didn’t pay much attention to him because he was just an old guy, blabbering and jabbering. He is in good shape, though. He was talking and talking and dancing around a little. I’m sure he does very little work but is just so charming and funny that he gets along and gets by and enjoys life. I had a red bandanna  on my face because I put it on to go into Walgreen’s to see if they had any fresh flowers, but they didn’t. However, I had stopped to take a picture of some really nice tulips a...

BNormal, Illinois April 12, 2020 After a few weeks of sheltering in place and having no incentive to work on academic manuscripts, all I wanted to do was stay at home and work on manuscripts so as to catch up on everything I missed. However, my sister and I, who are siblings and thus have complete immunity to each other’s cooties, had planned on a traditional Easter dinner, so traditional Easter dinner it was. At first things were a bit edgy because Peggy was very much out of sorts since she hadn’t been able to teach her music and band classes for middle-school kids. But then we got to opening the wine prior to dinner, and somehow that made the cheese and crackers a mighty fine experience. By the time we were into the second bottle, I stopped worrying about the manuscript and enjoyed dinner, and then we got to playing music and asking Alexa for more Apple Music of our choice. I asked for The Spinners’ “Working My Way Back to You, Babe” and things became downright marvel...

BNormal, IL April 2, 2020 From Benjamin J. Gonzales on Facebook, as forwarded by my niece, who is stuck at a hotel/motel she manages: Hey friends... I've seen a number of people saying that those who are defying stay at home orders, being stupid and going to massive prayer services, etc deserve to get ill or die. I'm not going to have any of that. I'm a firm believer in the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Are they being shitty? Yup. Do they deserve to die? No. Let's take this as an opportunity to reflect on why we are social distancing, why we are trying to reshape that curve... to save more lives, not to decide who deserves to die and who doesn't. Let's hope that as many lives as possible be spared. That person you think deserves to die is someone's parent, or sibling, or child, they aren't just a faceless number or statistic. Let's hope, together, work, together, to help spread messages of truth...