When we get back to normal. When everything is like it used to be. When things are like they were in the good old days. The good old days when things were normal. Happy days when father knew best, and bad kids were expelled from school for chewing gum.
But we are not normal now. We are in a quandary for normal. We pray for normal. We look around each corner for normal. But we cannot find normal. We talk about the new normal but even that is a myth. We are now post-normal. We have never been normal, and we probably will never be normal.
First smog in the sixties. Then water pollution in the seventies. Globalization in the eighties. A new century with mega storms, wildfires, water shortages, power outages and unprecedented heat spells. If normal was not elusive enough, in 2020 we get a virus that to date has killed almost 4 million people worldwide. A little bug that is about 50 nm in size. A nanometer is one billionth of a meter. You could put 20 million corona virus side to side and still have room left over on a yardstick. Has anybody ever asked a coronavirus when things will return to normal?
Just on the outside chance that we do get back to normal, what will it look like? A vision please, for without a vision, it is said that people will perish.
When we get back to normal, two parent families will again reign supreme. Mom will stay home to cook, while dad goes to work. There will be no trans-people. Girls will stick to cheerleading and let the boys play the sports. Contraceptives will be banned, and no one will dream of getting an abortion. Priests and ministers will be male, and gay people will disappear. Everyone in America will go back to being good Christians.
When we get back to normal, people will die of natural causes like alcoholism and tobacco smoking. Viruses will become a thing of the past as huge walls setup around our borders will prevent any bugs from infecting Americans. Health care will be readily available to rich people and make certain that the wealthier you are the longer you will live. Poor people will do the shitty jobs in America and die earlier since they will not be able to afford quality health care.
When we get back to normal, Black people, Latinos, Native Americans, and Asian/Pacific Island people will be put into their place so that White people can rule again without challenge. Only White people will be able to hold office. Police forces will be given more power to dispense arbitrary justice in minority communities thereby ensuring that minorities do not get too uppity. White people will be allowed to immigrate to the USA but people from other countries will be given strict orders to stay home.
When we get back to normal, we will double the size of the defense budget and start a war someplace so that we can test our new arsenals out. We will try to select enemies who are too weak to really put up much fight. Our military will be the pride of America, and no one will have the audacity to stand up to it. Drones will eliminate American casualties and reporters will be prohibited from counting enemy dead.
When we get back to normal, schools will be places where children are taught patriotism and how to fit into the workplace. Colleges will establish quotas limiting the number of minorities who can enter. Businesses will be given more tax breaks so that the rich can become richer. We will spread a great deal of propaganda emphasizing the theory of trickle down. Poor people will be persuaded to be patient until unfathomable wealth eventually comes down to them.
When we get back to normal, scientists, Intellectuals, democrats, anti-gun people, liberals, writers, reporters, and teachers espousing critical thinking will be shunned. Anyone promoting facts and logic over emotions and intuition will be silenced by fines or stiff jail sentences.
I forgot to add that the Ten Commandments, Confederate Flag, and statues of Confederate heroes will be taken out of storage and placed on the lawn of every state capital in the USA. Laws will be passed to make sure that people stand for the Flag and kneel for the Cross. Of course, that is if things get back to normal again.
Do you still want things to get back to normal again?
Second, what are you going to do about your fears? Fear is an adaptive mechanism. It helps to keep you alive. If you are in the woods and walking down a trail and see a large bear or cougar coming towards you, it is quite healthy to have some degree of fear. But fear alone is not going to save your life. If you are paralyzed with fear you may just be eaten. Fear is an alarm. An alarm sounds to wake us up. The next step is to do something. Doing something is a risky effort with no guarantee of success. Sadly, there are few guaranties in life, but the evidence seems to suggest that doing nothing is worse than doing something. This is where forethought and preparedness come in. One of my favorite quotes is by the Roman philosopher Seneca (died 65 CE) who once said that “Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.”
Dylan Thomas said, “Do not go gentle into that good night.” I don’t know about the raging part of his poem. I prefer thinking about my life as I get older and not raging. But he makes a good point. It is all too easy to give up on life as we age. We can live in memories of what we used to do, or we can find new activities and new levels to pursue old activities at. For instance, I may not have the stamina to play tennis or racquet ball anymore, but I can still play pickleball or go for a short ride on my bicycle. I used to do six-minute miles in road races. My personal best was 38.48 on a 10K. The race I ran for Frederic Family days this year on June 12, 2021, I averaged 10.14 per mile for a 5k. Quite a bit off of my pace from years ago but I still got my t-shirt. I run for t-shirts these days and not trophies.
The first tale begins with a trip back from Duluth, Minnesota over thirty years ago. Karen and I were returning from a scenic ride up the North Shore to our home in White Bear Lake. It was a beautiful Sunday afternoon in July. We decided that we were hungry. We were nearing the Cloquet exit on Interstate 35. Not seeing anything near the exit, we decided to pull off the freeway and try to find a place to eat in Cloquet.
The quantity of food when it came was plentiful, but the quality of the food was a big surprise. We have been to many a good Chinese restaurant in Shanghai, Huangshan, Nanjing, Suzhou, and several other Asian cities including American cities with large Chinese populations. The food here was wonderful. It was tasty, spicy, and as good as we have eaten anywhere in the world. We were beyond surprised. I could not believe our good fortune. How could this be? A diamond in the rough where diamonds were not supposed to exist.
She advised me that Mr. Huie (who started the well-respected Chinese Lantern restaurant in Duluth) had decided that Cloquet would be a good place for a small take-out style Chinese restaurant. He placed an ad in a San Francisco paper which found its way to mainland China. Mr. Huie (son of the founder of one of the first Chinese restaurants in Duluth) reviewed a number of applicants who answered his ad. The present cook was selected for the job. Who would believe a genuine Chinese food restaurant in Cloquet Minnesota?
This logic is simply bizarre. It is almost beyond comprehension. A rifle based on a cartridge designed during the Vietnam War is now touted as a “perfect” defense weapon. It sounds like every home should buy one. Americans live in a country where there is no protection from crime according to the NRA and gun manufacturers. The NRA kisses the asses of manufacturers to grab more and more power as they perform like Pied Pipers for their members. “Come along, buy a gun, protect your rights, protect your family and children. Don’t let the criminals make a victim of you.” The NRA is a monster that has metastasized on the fears of Americans. Politicians court the money and votes of NRA members to get re-elected knowing fear is a great motivator. To paraphrase a comment made by the Nazi Hermann Goering:
“The more guns we have the safer we will all be,” scream the gun fanatics. I have neighbors walking around in their yards with guns strapped on their hips. I often see shoppers in some stores sporting revolvers and automatics on their belts. Walmart’s has asked that shoppers do not open carry guns. Do you know why? It is because people get nervous when they see these idiots walking around with pistols on their belts. I worry more about being shot by one of these jerks than I do by some armed robber. In the event of a store robbery, I suspect I might be more likely to be shot by the so called “good guy with a gun.”
I admit that I have always liked guns, knives, rifles, and assorted military hardware. However, I like them in their place. Rifles for hunting when hunting is a sport and not a crap shoot like so much of it is today. Baiting bears with donuts and then shooting them from a tree perch does not seem very sporting to me. I like target shooting. I enjoy shooting some black powder pistols that I own. A friend gave me an old revolutionary style musket which is fun to shoot. I do not shoot at squirrels or birds or rabbits. I use it for target practice. I am not against hunting deer, elk, and other animals for food. Many people in rural areas depend on game animals to supplement their diets in lieu of costly meats at a grocery store.
I don’t know who might kill you. I don’t know when they might kill you. I don’t know why they might kill you. Best odds are that it will be totally random, and you will never see it coming. You will never know when it will happen. The statistics show that you have a 75 percent chance that if you are murdered it will be by a gun and not by poison or a knife. (
How then have we gone from sanity to insanity? From being able to walk down a street or go to work or school and not worry about some nut case coming in and killing us? When did America go from being a country with “Law and Order” to a country where everyone needs to carry a gun to protect themselves? How have we let the politicians, NRA and gun manufacturers convince everyone that it is not safe to walk outside without a concealed carry permit and a Glock or Smith & Wesson hidden someplace beneath our bullet proof vest?
On some primal level, we all live by an unseen law of rhythm. The rhythm of the universe controls an eternal dance between the atoms and molecules that make up our existence. This natural rhythm imparts an inexorable symmetry to all of life. A regulated succession of strong and weak elements of opposite and contrasting conditions that becomes the master of all that we do. Buddhists call it the Yin and Yang of being.
In countless ways, we observe that there is fundamentally no difference between writing or between a piece of choreography and the changing climate. Creativity is carved out of the passion that is in everything we do. The body and mind embrace in a never-ending minuet. The music ebbs and flows. Our love is gentle, restrained, then wild and feral. Mornings, afternoons, evenings, and nights fuse with the seasons of spring, summer, fall and winter. The harsh gales of November resonate in the refrains of Tchaikovsky and Beethoven. “Summer Breeze” by Seals and Crofts ushers in the scorching days of July. Poetry rings out in the rap music of the streets while the mellow voices of choir singers comfort the soul. All things are one say the mystics. If my writing is one with all things, will the tempo of my words cool, heat, soothe or disrupt the fashions of life?
We are all dust in the wind but our rhythms echo through the halls of time. The most unforgettable and amazing repetitions will continue as long as humans walk the earth. Coded in the numerous ways we have of capturing the rhythm of our lives. Some codes in music, some in text and some in clay. Some dynamic, some peaceful, some violent and some sad. We write our lyrics, pen our verses, create our stanzas, and design our choreography. All efforts guided by the unseen law of rhythm. Now we are hard, now we are brittle. Now we roar and now we snore.
The rhythm of life runs through our heart beats. It runs through literature. It runs through music. Great music has rhythms that exhibit great variation. Fast, slow, moderate than fast again. Interesting speakers have a sense of rhythm in their talks. Have you ever heard a lecture or a sermon without rhythm? It will put you to sleep in less than five minutes. Writing and speaking, just like music, must contain elements of rhythm. A heart without rhythm ceases to beat. Writing without rhythm is boring. Life without rhythm is death.
Aging Capriciously 
Title: Historic Match between Good Guy from the West and Evil Guy from the East
17 Jun 2021 Leave a comment
by Dr. John Persico Jr. in Uncategorized Tags: biden, commentary, Putin, summit
Just for the hell of it, I am going to comment on the historic Biden Putin summit. Everyone else in the world has given their take on this historic moment in US and Russian history, so why not me? I can sound as knowledgeable about Biden and Putin as any of the commentators who have commented on this situation. Think of me as a commentator commenting on the commentators who commented about the historic Biden Putin summit. I should add that if you have not already noticed, just about every commentator commenting on this summit mentioned it as a “historic” summit.
In case you do not know the definition of historic, it has something to do with something that someone might potentially put into a history book or perhaps something that Hollywood will make a movie out of. If I were to make a film out of this historic summit, it would go something like this.
Plot:
Two leaders from hostile countries meet to divide up the world or at least agree on who is screwing things up in the world. The leader from the evil country denies everything while the leader from the great and good and very morale country warns the evil leader of the consequences of not being a better leader. The good leader is in the blue trunks while the evil leader is in the red trunks. The match consists of three one-hour rounds with a ten-minute restroom break between rounds. The breaks are to allow commentators to send their commentaries to their offices.
Cast:
Joe Biden: President of the USA
Vladimir Putin: Evil Dictator from Russia
Sycophants: Both countries brought along dozens of elected officials to witness the match
Commentators: Just about anyone who could buy, forge, or obtain a press pass
Synopsis:
Joe came out of his corner with a quick handshake which threw his opponent for a momentary loss. Commentators scored it 1-0 for Biden. Vladimir recovered quickly and met Joe’s handshake with a bone crushing shake of his own. Joe smiled and they both took their seats. Commentators gave Joe another point since they like him better. The score was now 2-0 for Biden.
Numerous subjects were dealt with in the next three hours. Despite the pre-game name calling by Biden, the opponents settled into a polite routine with no grandstanding or insults. As expected Biden threw a “dissidents jab” at Putin who responded with a “January 6th insurgency jab.” Biden called the comparison ridiculous which most commentators agreed on. Biden scored another point making it 3-0 for Joe.
Joe threw a right cross nailing Vladimir with warnings about any more hacking. Vladimir blocked the punch and denied everything. Commentators were split since Joe did not provide any evidence and Putin seemed so confident that nothing could be pinned on Russian hackers. Call it 1 for Joe and 1 for Putin. The score after round 2 was 4-1 in favor of Biden.
Both leaders came out in round three with Putin clearly shaken up and worried about the bad press he was getting from a less than stellar effort. It was clear that Putin had underestimated Sleepy Joe and had not trained well for this match. Nevertheless, Putin scored early in round three with some nice comments about his opponent that Joe rolled with. Commentators gave Putin a point since Joe should have side stepped these compliments instead of accepting them. Joe was clearly surprised. The final score after round three was 4-2 in favor of Joe.
Post-Game commentary tended to judge the match a win for Biden due to his early domination of the bout and self-confidence. However, many commentators had it as a draw since Putin made no concessions and gave nothing away. There were no major knockdowns and depending on one’s viewpoint nothing was really decided.
Stay tuned for a sequel to this historic match, in which both opponents will meet again for another historic showdown.
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