Pen-demic

JUNE 24, 2020  BY  WTUCKER Play Hard Ball! The end of hard ball bargaining over the Major League baseball season brought a sigh of relief among baseball fans. We now know the season will begin July 23 or 24 and encompass 60 regular-season games. But the strife of the negotiations over a month or more foreshadows future struggle between the billionaire owners and the millionaire players.  A prolonged negotiation suggests a lack of good faith in the negotiating parties. The issue is no longer the details of the contract, but who will gain the upper hand at the end of the negotiations. It is about power, not equity. According to U.S. Legal.com: Good faith bargaining requires employers and unions involved in collective bargaining to: use their best endeavours to agree to an effective bargaining process meet and consider and respond to proposals made by each other respect the role of the other’s representative by not seeking to bargain directly wit...

https://unsplash.com/@nhillier         I am numbed by numbers.         Numbers Infected.                  Numbers hospitalized.                        Numbers dead.             Those wanting freedom from number            People unfeeling, uncaring, unheeding of The old and the sick and the lonely and scared.   “Aren’t we all dying?” They say. “I’ll never get it!”                    Every night I dream that I am becoming sick, becoming a number.           Am I coughing?  Do I have a fever? Is my throat sore? Can I still taste and smell? Did I wash my hands enough?  Is my mask protecting others?  I pray f...

Like a knight going to battle, Each piece to protect me from the enemy, Each piece to equip me for the fight. Teeth in. Hearing aids in. Glasses on. Bandage on knee. Mask on. I am ready for my day. I am ready for life. Photo by  Artur Tumasjan  on  Unsplash

"Aimless Love" (Excerpt)    by Billy Collins This morning as I walked along the lakeshore I fell in love with a wren   . . . .  . . .  I found myself standing at the bathroom sink gazing down affectionately at the soap, so patient, so soluble, so at home in its pale green soap dish. I could feel myself falling again as I felt its turning in my wet hands and caught the scent of lavender and stone. "Aimless Love"  is the title poem of a Billy Collins anthology published in 2014. It reminds me of why he is the favorite of so many readers.  He turns ordinary moments into celebrations, the mundane into the magical. How much we need now that magic as we careen around the same four walls for weeks on end!  How much we need the magic of the soap "so patient, so soluble."  Will we ever view soap "affectionately" again?  What about disinfecting wipes and protective masks? Can we celebrate them now?  Will we remembe...