Nothing that I could write is of an order of magnitude large enough to be visible in the shadows of the grand and foul machinations of our government. Perhaps that is precisely why it is important to write: to document the experience of a singular quantum of humanity, the unique scale where human experience truly happens; not even two people share a single mind, let alone abstractions like a nation.
In this light, I report my experience this morning.
I read that good sleep can reduce the impact of the plague, so I have been on a sleep hygiene program and taking a small dose of melatonin three hours before bed. I don’t know how it might influence the progress of COVID in my case if I were to get it, but I am sleeping close to 8 hours instead of the previous 4 or 5. In the morning, I’m usually, not always, quick to rise. Dogs exercised and fed, and the fire stoked. And that is the way it worked this morning. The house is warming up, and the pack is resting by the fire.
Thursday and Friday are, respectively my art and music days, which I interpret somewhat loosely, as days of creative enterprise, and the muse sometimes takes me farther afield. So I thought a lot about some new paintings, and I did some sketches. They will use the format of traditional religious icons, but instead portray critical moments in evolution and triumphant forms of biology. The first painting I am doing is about that initial cell that took in a proto-mitochondrion, and thus was able to metabolize energy in much the way we do today. This was a minutely small event, only barely visible through a top-of-the-line modern light microscope, that brought forth you, me, that tree over there, and all of the the soon-to-be extinct species on our planet. Small?
My business is still crazy. My limited crew is struggling to keep up, and I’m not really in a position to help them more than as a cheerleader. I’m working furiously to get some decent hires in. Hopefully this will resolve soon.
So that is one small bit of humanity’s experience today. Definitely affected by the virus, honestly, other than some stress, not so much by the riot and change of hands in D.C.
Peace, fellow Earthlings. Peace to each of us.