15 August 2020
I’m leaning towards more frequent blog entries, pointless though they may be. What is leading me towards publishing these ramblings more often? Perhaps it’s this enveloping entropy of the COVID19-world, infusing my mind [and body] with a sense of gratuitous stasis overlaid by existential anxiety about uncertainty. I can do little [if anything] to avert this collective disaster – that might morph into universal catastrophe – and so I remain numb while alert, scared yet proactive, annoyed but resigned [perhaps].
Fire has been over-used as a metaphor for the Pandemic; nevertheless, fire speaks for the invasive ‘behaviour’ of this thing. What began as a smoke signal [poisonous bat/snake-incense] has emerged into a pulsing conflagration inoculated [!] against efforts to water-bomb it out of existence. Images of charred remains, spontaneous flare-ups, ember attacks, flickerings and scorched domains connote the virus’s multivalent contortion, on every level of lived experience. Do we now need a candle to show us the way, notate a vigil, requiem for our infected planet?
And yet, because the virus has become a political and ideological boxing ring, its infiltration has jumped fences [!] of gender, class, nation, race and ethnicity [etc, et al and so on…] in ways that are amoral, toxic and offensive. While climate performs its narrative [non-fiction], of exploding and vitriolic truth.
I’m aware I’m a compulsive attender – to radio and TV reports of the viral progressions and statistics and all the repercussions. What is this addiction doing to my body? To my mind? To you?
the herald-ess?