May 24, 2021 Commentary from an empty place

May 24, 2021 Commentary from an empty place: Today I heard someone died. Someone I did not know. But someone who started me on this journey of trying to do something. It was early in April. There was a phone call from Texas. I was asked to provide support. I did what I could do, but that was not enough. This morning was the strange warm before a storm comes. Some are saying it will be a big storm. The Bay is churning. Will it hit where my home is? Weather is so mercurous. I experienced the morning but am escaping the storm. Running. Running away. Coward. Or not? Things have to be done, people need support, thus money. The initial fund raising was a fantastic success. But one cannot rest when the needs continue, and the storm will amplify the needs. Thus I must find more and bring forth the riches. They call these storms cyclones; in the US we call it a hurricane. Same story – same destruction. I wanted to launch the Angels today, but in anticipation of destruction the authorities have shut off electricity. It is 95 F. No fan, no air-conditioning. The life-giving tool – the cell phone – has no power.  The storm has already hit even before the eye is here. In some ways it is a good decision. Turn off the power grid before fallen trees bring it down. In a way, the superstitious in me, says – good plan. The best way to avoid a shower is to carry an umbrella. It is planning for the worst and hoping for the best. In the midst of this there are other things going on. MRIs need to be done; households go for a spin when the trusted help falls ill. Mothers worry about the children. If this sounds depressing, it is because I see people tired and stressed trying to balance the elements of life. It is not just COVID-19 but a collective anxiety about what else may go wrong. Because things do, and those who choose to shelter in feigned ignorance hide in an artificial comfort, and those who address the issues get hurt. Spent a good amount of time documenting the things that have been done with the generosity of Wake Forest. Unfortunately, the Angels are all without electricity and thus things have slowed down a bit there. But hopefully by May 27 the storm will pass, and we will back to the pre-storm normal. The more I watch, the more I question the “normal.” It is something that some crave to provide order to life. I do not need normal. I need the real. There is no normal in this post-modern World. No normal conditions, no normal relationships – when the death of an unknown elderly woman causes me anguish. Everything is shifting – from storms to stormy relationships – trying to hanker for a fictitious normal is a play in futility. Roll with the punches because the Boxer never quits even though he may say, “In his anger and his shame "I am leaving, I am leaving,” but as Simon and Garfunkel reminded us as about the Boxer, “But the fighter still remains, he's still remains.” I remain, wherever my body may be in space and time.