People. Hello.
This post was published June 18, 2020… so, 6 months into covid, shortly after George Floyd protests began… that’s the vibe here.
It’s been a while.
How are you?
I am… fine?
I guess?
Assuming we now define FINE, as: ever-escalating incredulity, and disbelieving rage.
View this post on Instagram
I have not been here since before Coronavirus… the past months, panic– my baby brother works in an emergency room, Paul cannot work from home.
I wrote 87,900 pages…
… summed up:
I did NOT expect the apocalypse to have infomercials.
SCIENCE IS STUPID.
LET’S GET THE MY PILLOW GUY.
This, out of all the– THIS IS SIMPLY NOT POSSIBLE YET IT IS HAPPENING ANYWAY… returns to me occasionally and I wonder if I HALLUCINATED that during a pandemic, the American people were addressed by THE MY PILLOW GUY.
Did that actually happen?
OR HAVE I TAKEN PEOYTE AND FORGOTTEN?
Then Armaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, George Floyd.
I’ve been thinking how humanity is still in the middle ages… we think we are evolved, but it has only been 157 years since we ENSLAVED BLACK HUMANS.
That’s basically no time at all.
Black humans, alive today, remember not being allowed to drink out of the same water fountain as white people… we, the United States of America, did not even TRY to end this, until 1964.
1964 was YESTERDAY… 30 seconds ago— the humans who approved of this system, are still alive, they raised children. They voted. They RIOTED when we tried to change their mind.
WANNA TALK ABOUT #RIOTS?
This picture is from Levittown, Pennsylvania in 1957. As many as 600 RIOTOUS protesters gathered to terrorize the first Black family, Bill and Daisy Myers, to move into this all-white development.
White riots ≠ Black protests #BlackLivesMattter pic.twitter.com/LlLKFykPsi
— André Marcel Harris (@andreharris89) June 7, 2020
Now, the POLICE are rioting, as we lecture PEACEFUL protesters about how THEY must be CALM in response to police terrorizing Black humans.
Ummmm… no.
A TIDAL WAVE OF RAGE IS THE CORRECT RESPONSE.
Especially considering how humans will riot at ANYTHING.
Basically, we are all just sitting around waiting.
I am certain of this because when the Eagles football team won the Super Bowl a year and a half ago, Philadelphia’s response was to set the city on fire, flip cars, loot stores, and eat dog poop.
Oh, wait no, that’s fake news… sorry!
I googled it. It was HORSE poop.
AND APPARENTLY the city EXPECTED this— because ahead of time, they greased lamp posts with Crisco so nobody could climb them and HURT themselves.
The headlines were NOT: idiots riot, because idiocy.
The headlines were: celebrations turn rowdy.
So it makes me wonder– should the response to the public execution of a handcuffed man, lying immobile on the ground, be more, or less, rowdy, than when you win a football game?
Fun Fact: The first Pride was literally a riot against, you guessed it, POLICE BRUTALITY! ✨ HAPPY PRIDE MONTH pic.twitter.com/JQmz0t4HLF
— tim hell. (@itsTimHell) June 1, 2020
I’ve been thinking that MAYBE Coronavirus isn’t just a weird timeout in human history… MAYBE it will be the impetus that shifts our collective perspective… MAYBE NOW, a radical transformation of a system that gives safety, only to those born with privilege.
For months now, every day, I think about the people who are existing in a place of enormous stress, financial insecurity, housing, food, SCARCITY… panicked, just surviving.
We force the least-privileged, to scramble, just to endure a HARD existence… we gesture to their bootstraps.
WHERE IS OUR EMPATHY?
It’s literally ALL we need.
My initial response to Coronavirus was to re-read And The Band Played On, and Polio… both survived my decluttering phase— they are excellent.
And The Band Played On, by Randy Shilts is an extraordinary documentation of the Aids epidemic— the first time I read it, I literally COULD NOT BELIEVE how INEPT AND BLIND AND DELIBERATELY STUPID our government was… and even while I KNEW the outcome, my brain STILL could not process such disbelieving horror… like, MAYBE I’m wrong! Maybe this will be FINE because SURELY we would not have been like— the blood supply is killing people? Bummer for THEM!
Polio: An American Story, by David M. Oshinsky, is a less-dementing book; because not only did we get a vaccine, it turns out people are SUPER into their children, so nobody was like— OH WELL SHRUG EMOJI.
I have a lot to catch up on here… Yes. I have a kitchen update.
Figured I would first say hello and confirm that I am alive, and thank you for your messages… I am sorry I could not respond… my catatonia has been REAL, YO.
But I guess I’m adjusting to the dystopian sideshow that is now our existence because we have a sample cabinet door, (Paul is not doing the drawer fronts) and I’m finally finding a stain place… Weirdly, I haven’t felt like emailing around, being like— hi, I know it’s the apocalypse but are you available to stain some drawers?
I am thankful this started in spring— getting the garden in has been a great distraction; and especially at the beginning, helped alleviate my fear that the food supply would be affected… we have a LOT of kale for End Times, and this is very reassuring to me.
Ok. That’s it.
I’ll go write a kitchen post.
ALSO the post about what I bought on Craigslist*… NOT giant, or fancy, just a smallish box… but still!
*driveway pickup, masks
I HOPE YOU ALL ARE WELL AND SAFE.
xo
June 18, 2020 @ 8:05 pm
❤❤❤
June 18, 2020 @ 8:34 pm
Understand your Catalonia, truly. But next time just send a short post to
say I’m okay, just need to process all this.
I was for sure thinking that someone had passed away or something else so very grim had happened. I can’t worry about my IG people and my family and friends too. It’s just too much. Have a heart. ❤️
June 18, 2020 @ 8:36 pm
Catatonia, damn spellcheck!
June 18, 2020 @ 8:49 pm
I have been looking fir you! I Worried myself Sick for several hours thinking I had mislaid you. Nope it wasn’t my fault. Then I assumed the worst: you had finally driven Paul into Over the Edge Quarantine and he had swapped you on Craigslist for a totem pole for the front porch. I realized “nothing I can do about that. It was inevitable!” Then today you pop up in my email right where you are supposed to be! Thank God You Are Alright! Well, maybe not “all right”. But the best you/we/anyone can be in These Covid Times. ❤️ Best love to you and Paul! Kiss the kitties.
June 18, 2020 @ 9:19 pm
Please keep writing. And thank you.
June 18, 2020 @ 9:51 pm
So very happy to have you make a post, and a really good post it is!
Thank you!
June 18, 2020 @ 9:55 pm
Yes, I’m one who has lived long enough to see what was 1964 to now. I’m 65 (and white.) While I was so hopeful way back then, and again in 1969 when uprising came to my high school, I have to be honest; I don’t see a huge amount of change will come this time either. Change won’t be made in marching alone. I don’t have the answer either, just stating my pessimistic feelings.
But I am glad you are well and trying to have a bit of normal. I so hope I am wrong for the sake of every one of the humans that have been treated hatefully and wrongly, and for my grandchildren, who will need to fix the past as we tried to do.
June 18, 2020 @ 10:03 pm
OMG! I just googled you yesterday because I’ve worried about you. I tried tons of other ways to see if you were ok but nothing! I was so happy to see this email!
Life is just crazy and I don’t know if we’ll ever really come back from everything.
Love you family and kitties. Take care of yourself.
June 18, 2020 @ 10:04 pm
The protests are not peaceful for the most part. Peaceful protest is absolutely fine. This is riots, looting, burning, theft….people ripped from cars and beaten in the street….horses burned alive in trailers…..people injured and killed, small businesses destroyed…….this is anarchy. Not protest.
June 29, 2020 @ 6:07 pm
Becky – Amen to that!
June 18, 2020 @ 10:36 pm
Wishing you, hubby and brother continued good health. The garden is good for the soul; that’s where I too have sought peace……..that and interior painting .
Good the hear from you again. Your post restores some measure of normalcy.
June 18, 2020 @ 11:28 pm
Glad to see you writing again, as everyone else!
I read AND THE BAND PLAYED ON when it first came out, but there was one inconvenient fact I think Randy Shilts skipped over; without in any way excusing the neglect of proper public health approach to HIV-AIDS, it DID have an average incubation period of 5½ years, meaning a range of a few weeks to eleven years. Anything asymptomatic that long will be merrily spread around. I just googled it and got “10 years” as an average in young adults.
How are kittens?
June 18, 2020 @ 11:55 pm
wow, I can’t believe that after all this time in silence you have finally resurfaced!!!. We have all been so concerned for you, could you at least have said I’m fine? Anyhow, so glad you are back. You have been missed. I had given up on you ever coming back. I even messaged Paul’s brother and sister in law. I did not get a response from them either. Welcome back. I hope you continue to be your witty, hilarious self that you were before you left us.
June 19, 2020 @ 7:10 am
Adding to the chorus – thank you for using your platform to voice your opinions and to reflect the truth of what is going on in America and around the world. I too hope CV-19 is a wake up call on a lot of levels.
Also re the people who just want kitties and kitchens – You’ve been vocal about your beliefs before AS IS YOUR PREROGATIVE as THIS IS YOUR BLOG. I hope people who don’t see BLM as a critical issue stop for a moment when they read your post(s), the same way I’ve reconsidered my meat and dairy eating when I read your vegan content. Am I a vegan yet? No. Am I considering the choices I make around food and the impact they have? Yes. Change doesn’t happen overnight on any front. Especially changes that mean we have to re-examine the very basis of our existence in the world.
Thank you for your kitties AND your “political views.” And the kitchen. Because I too am curious. 🙂
June 19, 2020 @ 4:35 pm
Yes! All this!
June 19, 2020 @ 7:11 am
When I first started reading you, I pegged you to be one of those erratic kind of people, one with a good heart and and a great deal of sensitivity. So I wasn’t too surprised when your newsletters started stretching out, life happens. Then life really happened and you kinda got lost in the shuffle. And me being my anal self finally realized it had been too long since I heard from you last. Glad to see you are doing well, reasonably at least.
Let me state here, I an 72 years of age; old or young is relative to what time of day or week it is. I have been waiting over 45 years for reality to kick in and for people to awaken, now they are beginning to. We still have a bumpy road to travel, let’s make it a point of doing it together.
Do you have Facebook?
June 19, 2020 @ 9:28 am
What is happening in the United States is a continuation of the way the country was born ….through rioting, looting, and murder…with people withholding human rights from others as though they are theirs to take. This has never changed, and has only transformed to be more covert. Those who do not want to see the privilege they have gained through this profound violation of human rights—and state it here—are being documented as standing on the wrong side of history.
Thank you, VEB, for using your voice to speak out against the atrocities of our country.
June 19, 2020 @ 10:43 am
Hello Victoria!!!
So glad to hear from you and that you and Paul are well! Thank you for sharing your feelings, I enjoyed them.
June 19, 2020 @ 11:13 am
So glad you are well. Tough times call for tough people. Stay safe
June 19, 2020 @ 2:15 pm
So glad to see that you and Paul are alive and well.
I don’t have enough words to express the feelings that I have have about our current times, and its wonderful to see that in somewhat few words, you have.
Thank you!
Your strawberries are so beautiful!
June 19, 2020 @ 4:26 pm
So happy you are saying hello.
In your own unique voice.
Saying all you wish to say.
In your own unique way.
Take the time you need to process, as we all have that need.
I am here when you are ready.
I will read your blog,(and recommend it) for your uniqueness.
Your style!
Your heart!
Your humor!
And your passions!!!
I will always look and listen with open mind and heart.
I am human.
I see you,
I hear you,
and I cheer you on!!!
June 19, 2020 @ 4:41 pm
Hello, and so lovely to hear from you. I must be psychic because just the other day I thought to myself “I miss Victoria..We haven’t heard from her in a long time”. I too, am just sitting around bonding with my home, husband & cat. All of this stinks, but yes, I have hope it’s for ultimate good. Love you talented writer lady!