By way of explanation for my absence…

It has been a very long time since I wrote about anything here. Today I thought I should offer some kind of explanation, and I think this will only happen once, but Im not guaranteeing anything.

Everyone is having a hard time with this pandemic . I am not alone but I have been avoiding this site simply because I am too tired of using the computer to Live my life. It seems Everything must be done through a tablet or a keyboard and I am old enough that I find that quite exhausting. When I first started this online journey it was a fun thing to do, to launch a conversation with the world even if noone listened. I didn’t worry about that, it was just part of the way I approached it. I don’t do all the promotions or have a presence on any social media, which yes I know, limits my exposure but I always felt that if there was a like mind out there I would be found. I am no longer sure that is true. I still like to share my work and my thoughts but with the huge number of people now trying to get their voices heard and new products before eyes that might purchase them I feel that my small voice will be lost in the ether.

I am also very concerned about how we are handling this pandemic. I feel the Government has grossly mishandled the whole affair. I never thought my generation who worked so hard to put universal health care into place would somehow be held ransom as people to the system . When in the history of humankind has the healthy population been put into quarantine. It seems that this event has happened because governments are fearful of overloading and the backlash that hospitals might just become places to go to die instead of places of care. And that the tax payers might be a little upset with the cost of all that. Instead we have shut down the whole economy and the governments are busy increasing deficits and future debt that will still have to be paid somehow.

We have also been made to be afraid of everything and anybody. It reminds me of the way travellers used to be suspect when they arrived in a small community… the us and them syndrome. We in this latest round of restrictions are also being told that we have the right to report those we think are breaking the rules. WE seem to have just accepted that this is different than when the Nazi’s encouraged the brown shirts to turn rulebreakers into authorities, or when the young of Communist China exposed anyone who thought independently during the cultural revolution. I sometimes wonder if most people have read any of this and if they just think they are stories. We are being fed as much propaganda as any population that has fought a war. This is a pandemic revolution. where Public Law courts are closed. It is apparently thought possible to convict someone of a civil dispute over a video hearing. Criminal matters are still being heard, we wouldn’t want the land to become lawless but justice in a civil matter would put too many people into physical contact which the powers that be have decided is a more serious side effect.

Don’t get me wrong. I do not think this is a huge conspiracy but I do think the government is wielding some pretty suspect powers in the name of protecting health.

Enough, I think you get my drift.

I am still making art, in fact I have advanced , I think, to a different level simply because of the time and concentration that have been my gifts in this situation. But I’m beginning to think this is at quite a hefty cost, and I would like to have less computer time and more face to face interaction even with strangers who might infect me. It would be better than stopping all that I find stimulating in life, thoughtful theatre, carefully practiced music programs that reach my ears without electronic amplification, and travel and the food and museums that always enrich my life experience.

Hopefully I will find the energy to take some photos of my current work and post them and get back into some kind of balance, and perhaps I will begin again to trust that someone, somewhere is listening and watching just as thoughtfully as I think I am