{"id":2394,"date":"2020-04-06T11:22:39","date_gmt":"2020-04-06T18:22:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/roseledgebooks.com\/blog\/?p=2394"},"modified":"2020-04-06T11:47:41","modified_gmt":"2020-04-06T18:47:41","slug":"crusade-good-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/roseledgebooks.com\/blog\/?p=2394","title":{"rendered":"CRUSADE: GOOD NEWS"},"content":{"rendered":"

THE PIER IS FREED<\/strong>! Good times are at hand.<\/p>\n

In what surely ranks as a minor miracle, the Water Quality Project People have unlocked, de-fenced, and opened the Pier through August!\u00a0 This is GREAT NEWS.\u00a0 \u00a0Though their reasons were probably rooted in community goodwill and profound wariness of my abilities as a performance artist, their actions came just in time to be one small antidote to the bleakness of COVID 19.<\/p>\n

\"\"

I tossed dried flowers and welcomed the Pier back to the people who walk.\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Charlie thinks “coming back” makes it a zombie pier.\u00a0 Sigh.\u00a0 Who is his mom?<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The Pier is a walker’s destination with no surfaces to touch. lean against, or sit down upon.\u00a0 No “social distancing” problem, as it is still gloriously undiscovered.\u00a0 Usually,\u00a0 the wind is enough to blow away a person’s dreaded droplets of sneeze or cough, and more good news, the ducks and gulls and occasional dogs don’t care.<\/p>\n

THE PIER IS FREED<\/strong>!\u00a0 And for a bit each day, so are we all.<\/p>\n

Surrounding that brief bit, is the too real ureality of. as Charlie keeps pronouncing the “pre-apocalyptic\u00a0 dystopian reality<\/strong>” that we are living.\u00a0 It’s a science fiction novel, he says, somewhat surprised, but up for it.\u00a0 \u00a0COVID 19 or no, Charlie and I are fine\u00a0 He is driving\u00a0me crazy with his pre-recorded admonitions:\u00a0 SOCIAL DISTANCING<\/strong>! and\u00a0 \u00a0 GOVERNOR’S ORDER–SHELTER IN PLACE!<\/strong> and I am keeping\u00a0him on his toes by perpetually trying to go rogue.\u00a0 He is more worried than I, but I am not foolish –yet –and I love that he is doing his best to keep me well.<\/p>\n

BRIGHTENERS FOR THESE DAYS:\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/strong> I love this puffin<\/a>.\u00a0 I love the artist who looked at shoreline debris and saw art with purpose, process and joy — okay, horrifying joy.\u00a0 It would be perfect for the freed pier.\u00a0 Or maybe a gull or baby gulls and we in Seattle — and the Scots — could have a “Make Way for Scorries” moment.\u00a0 I’m also sending\u00a0 the Seattle Times<\/a>\u00a0article on to Richard Fernandez, the Pier Person who knows — for sure with two mentions –when an idea is really good.<\/p>\n

One day Stephen Greenblatt’s NYer article<\/a> noted that Lucretius<\/strong> saw, in The Nature of Things<\/strong>, “invisible bullets” or “seeds” which veer randomly and allow us to make choices.\u00a0 The god-fearers of his day disagreed, as only a god decided.\u00a0 \u00a0Soon thereafter I read in the NYT<\/strong> of the ultraconservative Christian god-fearers of today<\/a> dismissing the knowledge of scientists trying to slow, then stop the pandemic so much with us.\u00a0 So history repeats itself.\u00a0 \u00a0Save me from “gut instincts” or “I just know” or ” I looked at lots of data” or “I read twenty-five books” or God knows.\u00a0 As a Continuing Day Brightener, Stephen Greenblatt’s book, The Swerve<\/strong>, tells how Lucretius’ treatise remains known to us these 2000 years later, which clearly leads us to a great read about how information moves, a perpetual personal pursuit.<\/p>\n

In his NYT obit<\/strong><\/a>, I discovered, and now love, Wolf Kahn’s paintings.\u00a0<\/a> His alive colors of landscape are a great antidote to sheltering in place as glorious Spring arrives.\u00a0 I think we’ve finished cherry blossoms and are into apple blossoms.\u00a0 I’ll know more tomorrow when I walk the 4 blocks to have my pacemaker checked.\u00a0 I have never been so looked forward to having my pacemaker checked.<\/p>\n

\"\"

My name is O’Hoot. I welcome you with too few (Irish) coffee nips.<\/p><\/div>\n

I loved Jess Kidd’s more-than-a-mystery, Himself.<\/strong>\u00a0 Maybe you have to be Irish to enjoy the familiar humor and ghosts, midst longing, questions, and the indomitable in pure Irish-speak.\u00a0 Or maybe you don’t.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

THE PIER IS FREED! Good times are at hand. In what surely ranks as a minor miracle, the Water Quality Project People have unlocked, de-fenced, and opened the Pier through August!\u00a0 This is GREAT NEWS.\u00a0 \u00a0Though their reasons were probably … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/roseledgebooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2394"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/roseledgebooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/roseledgebooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/roseledgebooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/roseledgebooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2394"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"http:\/\/roseledgebooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2394\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2409,"href":"http:\/\/roseledgebooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2394\/revisions\/2409"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/roseledgebooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2394"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/roseledgebooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2394"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/roseledgebooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2394"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}