Are You Now or Have You Ever Been?

You live with fear in a pandemic, primarily about the fact that you will catch the disease. In The Decameron Boccaccio writes about a group of Florentines who tell stories to each other as they recuse themselves to avoid the plague. Katherine Ann Porter's Pale Horse, Pale Rider creates an ominousness of biblical proportions in her tragic recounting of the Spanish flu of l918. Do you have it or not? It’s a little like the world of the McCarthy Hearings. Are You Now or Have You Ever Been? People are constantly taking their temperatures and monitoring the sniffling and tickle in their throats which they may not have thought twice about in normal times. If they hear a rumor justified or not, they immediately quarantine themselves or at least stay away from those who they think might have it. It’s a world of haunting isolation—followed by temporary relief.The brief respites with their rewards (the night on the town) are followed by new found causes for worry and concern. It's a dark tunnel with constant waiting for the light which feels like it's never going to come.

Read "MAGA and the Coronavirus" by Francis Levy, The East Hampton Star

and catch this great guitar riff from l971, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TPVk-m1Pr4s