well, here whether on
is
or isn't the last person
one cannot see or talk to anybody else
other than on 'zoom'
Kerem jojjenek maskor es kulonosen masho
palma, a paolo shaul םֹשׁ ְרֵגּ
On Sat, Mar 21, 2020 at 7:55 AM carolkir <carolkir@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
You mean there wasn't a spate of neutron bombs after all? I'm not the only
person left on Earth? Huh.
Guess it's time for a Trader Joe run. Need the exercise.
Sent via the Samsung Galaxy S10e, an AT&T 5G Evolution capable smartphone
-------- Original message --------
From: david ritchie <profdritchie@xxxxxxxxx>
Date: 3/20/20 9:20 PM (GMT-08:00)
To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: Carry on
Have you thought much about the history of yoga and so on in America?
Among the books I haven’t read was one I ordered for the college library
after a New York Times book review, Gary Lachman, “Madame Blavatsky; The
Mother of Modern Spirtuality.” Lachman was one of the founding members of
the group Blondie. I thought the book would appeal to art students, but
I’ve not seen anyone with it clutched to their... wherever people clutch
books to nowadays. I doubt “bosom” is the right term.
I mention the book because I decided yesterday to see what Wikipedia had
to say about the history of yoga. I was thinking of posting on Facebook
how grateful I am that I found stretches which help my back and relieve
tension. But then I thought, “I wonder if people will pile in because we
went to an Ayengar studio and there are probably schisms.” So I looked to
see what bother I might be getting into and…my goodness. Run your eye over
the words and prepare for your head to swirl. All that stuck in my brain
was that Alexander the Great brought with him a group of scholars whose job
it was to plunder knowledge.
Big Alex: “You, you and you, go into that storehouse and bring out all the
booze, gold, fish and so on. You, you and you, go ask that bunch what
they’ve been thinking about for the past couple of hundred years.”
I wrote to a friend not long ago that I expected someone to declare quite
soon a National Day of Fasting, Prayer and Humiliation. It’s something of
a tradition during epidemics. “Oh god, or gods, we’ve foregone our
cornflakes and failed to suck our guts in when someone wanted a photo, so
would you mind awfully taking back the plague?” Someone told me today that
the occupant of the White House called for exactly this. Not really his
bailiwick is it, prayer and fasting? Humiliation is more his line.
Possibly we could have a National Day of Madam Blavatsky’s Theosophy and
fraud?
So great that we in Portland didn’t get a “shelter in place” order. They
were mooting one; the mayor still wants one. We arranged to meet E. and
N. under safe circumstances, on the waterfront and to walk beneath the
cherry blossoms. Loads of people out in gorgeous sunshine, all but a
couple of couples observing the correct distance. Go Portland! So nice to
be reminded that humans still walk the earth. I ran into a couple of
students who were also having their first outing since last week. I
explained that I’d spent most of the day revising syllabi and drawing up a
plan. “The reason you haven’t received them is that when I logged on to
send them there was a follow up to, ‘All of this must go out on Friday.’”
“And the follow-up said?”
“We’ve changed our minds about the teaching timetable. Don’t send
anything.”
We all smiled, because what else can you do? Everyone’s inventing on the
fly.
“You called it,” said C., who is in two of my classes and has heard me
predicting gloom and doom since January.
On the way home L. wanted to support Higgins, a restaurant everyone loves,
on our way home. You can only get take-out at any restaurant. She looked
it up on her phone. Nope. Higgins has closed for the first time in 26
years. Like many restaurants they have a very small kitchen, so I can
imagine it was an unsafe work environment.
Instead we stopped at Trader Joe’s for beer and tortillas and veg, all the
food groups. Many of the shelves were denuded but it was quiet. We walked
right up to the checkout, where there was hand sanitizer, a guy wearing
gloves, a friendly smile.
Got home, clothes went into the wash, showered. Put groceries into
quarantine.
Have you noticed diminished appetite? For me I think that’s about
interrupted sleep and less exercise than usual. The tennis club has
closed, so our only opportunity for that will be public outdoor courts.
Rain in the forecast next week. That will change everyone’s outlook.
My plan for the weekend is to get vegetable starts in the ground. Which
means removing a lot of weeds. Yesterday evening I pulled a lot of ivy.
There are many forms of exercise. And you?
David Ritchie,
Portland, Oregon
