I wasn’t ready to write about V Day quite yet.
With each passing day, the previous one seems more like the end of a bad dream. Lewis Carroll put pen to paper one hundred and fifty-five years ago and penned the timeless classic Alice in Wonderland. I think many of the sentiments found in his work are strangely appropriate in this chaotic time.
It takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that!
and
Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.
Just a couple of quotes that struck me as relevant. In the midst of all of this, I remain thankful. A small band remains hard at work to keep Transcend open (to go and beans) and the roastery team keeps roasting and filling bags that have been flying out the door at a record pace via online sales - thankful. While so many other small businesses not just in Edmonton, but across Alberta and beyond, have made agonizing decisions to shut their doors, we are grateful for your ongoing support.
I know that I am a strange man; not just because I so often find myself at my keyboard typing at 1:15 am. I am a paradox even unto myself, conflicted with opposing thoughts and views, challenged by the world I am living in, knowing that I am as much a part of the problem as those I find it so easy to judge. These times of uncertainty, foreboding and suffering produce at the same time a sense of dread and odd hope. You see the madness of the world all around, and yet, also the kindness and grace. Extreme selfishness and generosity. The Cheshire cat told Alice that “we are all mad here” and it doesn’t take a much to find oneself nodding in agreement with that. Along with Alice, I find myself responding as she did with the statement “curiouser and curiouser”!
I am a news junky, I have been all of my life. But recently I have quit watching the news. Responsible journalism, it seems to me, has devolved into fear-mongering and a morbid fascination with the celebration of all that is bad in the world. Oh, they throw in a little good news in the last thirty seconds of the broadcast, but the rest is filled with shock and awe (and I am not just talking about Fox either). So with no sports to watch, and no news my cooking is filled these days with a strange unusual silence, although this evening we watched the old movie Field of Dreams which wasn’t in any way bad for the soul. Alas, I am rambling.
We have collectively descended down the rabbit hole. The world is topsy turvy and strange and new, and not in a good way. I am not optimistic about how this turns out, and yet, I am also not prepared to fold just yet. I still have some chips on the table, and as long as there are some in front of me, despite a dwindling stack, I will bid and play with the hope that I can win a hand or two along the way. OK, enough with the analogies, it is time for bed.
It's no use going back to yesterday, because I was a different person then.