A Public Diary During the Coronavirus/COVID-19 Pandemic ~ Day 38
By: Joe Culhane
Tags: Poetry, Earth Day, Pandemic Diaries, Gratitude, Love

38 days now

in this isolation

situation.

38 years now

on this spinning

planet.

Somewhere

along the

way

I

may

have came

to the conclusion

that humanity needs help

And more than that

it will not be some

superhero who

comes to our aid

and saves the day

Nope.

The hero’s journey

still has meaning

and significance

And yet,

we will find our

salvation

through collective

collaborative actions.

Distributed leadership

with sensible, clear

decision making processes

It is likely that we,

along the way

will come to see

the need for

smaller

cells

of

organized folks

and communities.

We may be able

to stay globally

connected

But localized

and regional

place based

living will be

the way to go.

At least,

I think so?..

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Happy Earth Day, y’all!

Hey hey, it’s Earth Day! Or as some call it, B’Earth Day. It’s the 50th Anniversary of this day to honor the planet we live on. Countless folks and groups and schools and organizations galore over these past 50 years have taken on projects and done fun activities on this date each year. That’s cool. I dig that. I’ve participated in tons of them in fact. And today, I did so again. I made a podcast episode to honor and recognize this day and share some thoughts about it. You can give it a listen if you’d like. We also painted signs last night and I hung them up today on our front porch for those passing by to see. That was a nice family activity. It sure is swell to have both my kids around the house these last several days.

It has also been an interesting journey navigating the online schooling for my daughter. She seems to be figuring out her way though. That’s good. It still seems like a mess in many ways dealing with the online classes and assignments and all that, and then there is all those kids who do not have a tablet or for that matter, the internet. The inequities and the chasm between the haves and have nots is widening by the minute.

Oh, and oil prices just dropped WAY below zero. It’ll be fascinating (terrifying?) to see how this gets handled and incorporated into the economic outlook for the U.S. as fracking is gonna be put on hold in a lot of cases and as the storage facilities reach capacity, it’s gonna be tricky for the fossil fuel folks to make their way through this. Everything is being challenged, questioned, and flipped on its ass these days. And here I am, day 38 of this here dance, in my 38th year on the planet, trying to make sense of how best to keep on keeping on. All things considered, we’re doing alright at the moment. I feel very fortunate for what we have, at least at present. There’s no telling what the future will bring, but I have no control over that, nor do I have control over now for that matter but at least right here in the now I can take a juicy, deep breath, and give thanks.

Speaking of thanks, and deep breaths, holy buckets of rain was todays yoga class a doozy! My darling and I did the class together, the first one I’ve done in a week or so, I haven’t been keeping track, she’s done it every day for awhile now which is fantastic. Anyways, wow, what a class. Kundalini yoga, for those not familiar with it, is not just a bunch of traditional and typical poses. There’s chanting and stretches and a whole lot of body technology that you participate in that is mighty potent. I also wept at one point, lightly. It was more just one tear that actually rolled down my face but during this several minute session of this breathing exercise, with our eyes closed, left hand on the heart, and the right hand following a cycle up and down on the breaths, that got me good. It was similar to being deep in a medicine journey if you know what I’m talking about. That point where the emotions well up, teeter on the brink of something, an edge that you’re not sure you want to let it over and at the same time, you really do. It was that place.

I allowed myself to go over the edge, just a bit. To be more precise, I welcomed the emotions over that edge, coaxed them even, while as you may know as well, trying not to think or focus on them too much in case I was to lose them. You know what I’m talking about? Kinda like a sneeze. But I’m talking about that really good stuff you find in that sacred space where you arrive at a purge. And that was exactly what that tear was. Internally, I was buzzing. I was pulsing with the rhythm of my breath and the vibrations of this shared practice that my wife and I, along with the teacher, her student on video, and the hundreds or thousands of others around the country and maybe world who were doing it at the same time. That is some powerful shit right there.

In that class I really connected to that shared energy and practice that we were all doing together. Being in a room with a couple dozen people, or maybe a couple hundred in something like a shakti pot intensive, you can really feel the energy of the group, all vibrating in the same container together. But in what we’re doing in this isolation situation is wholly different. Wonderfully potent but in an entirely different way. I really dig it.

Anyways, I love kundalini yoga, and even though there is some problematic business with Yogi Bhajan that has come to light recently. I’m not in it to follow and idolize the teacher. It’s the technology I’m into. The damn guru situation can get distracting and that’s not what I’m about. By all means, what he is being accused of and what potentially, if not quite likely, went down then that is terrible. And it’s not debatable that he was a damn fine capitalist. He was rich as fuck. But power and consumption can get the best of us, and that may well be the case with him as well.

Okay, It’s after 8, it’s relatively late. I’m gonna wrap this up and chill with the missus. The kids are downstairs watching a movie together, eating popcorn with M&M’s in it. This is a precious time we have here to ourselves and by golly, I’m going to enjoy it!

Love to this precious planet. Happy 50th Earth Day. May we find our way towards a better future and reality. Pretty please…