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Have you noticed any changes in your relationships with coworkers, neighbors, or acquaintances since the start of the pandemic? Have these kinds of relationships gotten stronger or weaker? If so, how?
This picture of a scale in a hardware store where I bought fresh peanuts is an example of comfort food and also a reminder of Peanuts the Charles Schulz cartoons. I find that I am proactive to make new connections in fields of interest that intrigue me. I bought the peanuts as I waited to get into an exhibit of Techspressionism which is artwork created digitally or using technology. It was a great exhibit I reconnected to the woman who did a seminar many years ago at Guild Hall in East Hampton about software to create digital art. I call my works digital abstract expressionism. I actually sold an art work at Guild Hall in a member exhibition. Only 19 works sold out of 400 displayed. The curator of the exhibit on Saturday April 23 was also a new connection. So I guess I manage to make new connections which compensates for not staying in touch with old friends.
April 30, 2022
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How is the coronavirus pandemic affecting your life right now? Tell us about your experiences, feelings, and thoughts.
I believe that people around here are identifying with the Brood X cicadas. After 17 years, the little insects are finally freed from their solitary confinement underground. Now they can fly free, mingle, and make lots of noise. I think the parallel is obvious: we can now get out and mingle, too. We weren’t out of circulation for nearly as long as the cicadas were, of course; but sometimes the lockdown seems as though it continued for years. A cicada eruption is one of the great spectacles of natural history; a lot of us look forward to it. The cicadas are cute little guys—black with bright red eyes and transparent wings—and very tame. They’re not very strong flyers; sometimes they make unscheduled landings on the sidewalks. From there, you can pick them up and put them back on the nearest tree trunk. And you should; if they stay on the sidewalk, they’ll get stepped on or simply roast on the hot pavement. I realize that this good deed doesn’t make very much difference to the world at large, but it makes a huge difference to that particular cicada. But the cicadas are one more thing: they’re a MEMENTO MORI, a reminder of our mortality. After they die out, in about a month, the cicadas won’t be back for another seventeen years. How many people who are alive and watching them now, will still be alive to see them again, seventeen years from now?
June 3, 2021