The USA has blocked all traveling to and from Italy.
What an eye opener!
“In a time where certain discriminating policies are spreading worldwide with nostalgic references to our despicable recent history..
Here comes a virus to remind us– in a short flash – that we can become the discriminated, the segregated, those rejected at the borders, those carrying a disease. Even if it’s not our fault; even if we are white, western, and travel in business class.”
The weather is glorious, again! We opt for a very Spartan flash-mob type family picnic.
Our garden can’t wait for spring, and it shows.
Emma the wannabe Jack Russel passed out before my very eyes.
She’s 14 years old and has a heart condition.
She may be on her way to the One-Way Elevator.
Thanks to COVID19 I will spend with her most every minute of her remaining days.
As luck would have it, our domestic help quit in favor of new employment nearer to home and with longer hours.
Only one week after that, COVID19 came to remind me of how many little luxuries we have afforded ourselves, and how many we can do without.
So today I am tackling a mountain of clean and wrinkly linens, to have it all nice and smooth for our next guests, whenever they will come.
(Predictably, I am getting the first Guest Withdrawals).
It occurs to me that our 400-year-old dining table in the Accidental Tourist kitchen was in fact originally an ironing table! So here it is, in its 2 different uniforms.
(People were definitely shorter 400 years ago: I can see my back aching tonight).
6 PM sharp, bored out of their minds our children concede a game of Pictionary.
We share a bottle of prosecco. Yes, the boy too.
I am in Heaven. AND, I am in the winning team.
I wanted to serenade my 90-year old aunt Silvia and uncle Roberto who live in the same building. Can’t go near them, but thought I would play them a song or two from the garden.
Tomorrow.
Well if life doesn’t pass you on the right-hand side! After unsuccessfully whining and begging my family for a dress up, our good friend and yoga teacher Patrizia who is turning 50 today, has invited me for a toast at 9:30PM. On Zoom. Dress code: elegant! Yeah! (BYO, needless to say.)
So today too has passed well.
I go to bed with an anthology of my favorite poetess: Wislawa Zymborshka.
This that follows is why I fell for her:
“A Contribution to Statistics”
Out of a hundred people
-Those who always know better:
fifty-two
– Doubting every step
nearly all the rest
– Glad to lend a hand
if it doesn’t take too long:
as high as forty-nine
– Always good
because they can’t be otherwise:
four, well maybe five
– Able to admire without envy:
eighteen
– Suffering illusions
induced by fleeting youth:
sixty, give or take a few
– Not to be taken lightly:
forty and four
– Living in constant fear
of someone or something:
seventy-seven
– Capable of happiness:
twenty-something tops
– Harmless singly, savage in crowds:
half at least
– Cruel
when forced by circumstances:
better not to know
even ballpark figures
– Wise after the fact:
just a couple more
than wise before it
– Taking only things from life:
thirty
(I wish I were wrong)
– Hunched in pain,
no flashlight in the dark:
eighty-three
sooner or later
– Righteous:
thirty-five, which is a lot
– Righteous
and understanding:
three
– Worthy of compassion:
ninety-nine
– Mortal:
a hundred out of a hundred.
Thus far this figure still remains unchanged.
