INTRODUCTION

In this bleak midwinter season, I get plenty of opportunity to reflect.

I look for the silver linings.

There’s a big stack of books right here.

I could get to those.

But I don’t.

I don’t get to those books.

Or if I do, they get misplaced, buried under a new pile

Or half read, then forgotten.

My concentration is poor. I ‘m distracted.

It’s all I can do to keep up at the office.

You may be going through your own version of the same thing.

My days are chaotic, and infected by an undercurrent of fear.

I get home too tired for much of anything but of bit of tv.

I watch the Crown on Netflix. 

When swirling around us is the Corona, Spanish word for Crown.

This is a surreal.

And in this bleak midwinter season,

I look back at the only books that captured my attention these past months.

They have all been science fiction.

Well, no wonder!

It is the only thing that makes sense.

CORONA

A pandemic, made of microscopic corona crowns turned the world upside down.

Here we are in 2020…a number we associate with perfect vision, and we were blindsided

It’s Science Fiction.

These little corona crowns came from bats, or pangolins, or a lab in China,

Or maybe not.

It’s Science Fiction.

I report to the office and picture storm clouds of coronas orbiting everybody

I bob and weave to avoid them.

It’s Science fiction.

I visit the supermarket and imagine I am kicking around corona balls in the produce section.

Masked people stare out with hollow eyes.

It’s Science fiction.

And next there is a new strain of corona crowns and they are aggressive little suckers.

Made in England.

A real crown of thorns a scientist says on the tv.

It’s Science fiction.

And next there is the vaccine.

It changes our RNA, something having to do with folding proteins.

Like folding clean linen. Everything will be made tidy again.

It’s Science fiction and it’s scary

SCIENCE FICTION

It seems we are all acting out the stages of grief on the world theatre.

Bargaining and denial play leading roles.

Science fiction fuels the plot.

Worm holes–  time travel–  masked mutants – secret experiments– all play various parts

In this bleak midwinter landscape.

The beauty of all this, of science fiction,

Of thinking about it…

Is how it dampens my despair, replaces it with ideas about possibility,

There are many possibilities, just out of reach.

What if we could climb in a worm hole back to January 1, 2020?

What if we could turn back those clocks and do it right this time?

What if no one had to die from those coronas?

There are plenty of What-ifs to entertain

THE HALO

What if we could actually see each other’s coronas,

What if we were all walking around with  halos?

You know, like those famous images of the Holy Virgin and the baby with halos?

Or, there are  those electro-static photos of people, plants and things?

They have all kinds of light and rainbow-like colors surrounding the object in the photo?

The Russian scientist, Kirlian, developed this technique.

They’re sometimes called corona photos.

What if those halos were ever-changing expressions from our deepest heart and soul?

Laid bare for the world to see?

Would we be a better species if we could see one another’s aura of light… our real corona?

Skin color would no longer matter

Age, gender, political persuasion would all take a back seat

 What becomes important is the intensity of light you emit around your body.

How wonderful.   How wonderful.. Unless

Unless you are 14 years old and you have a crush on the kid sitting in the desk right next to yours.

And what if your corona were all lit up because of that?

It brings the terror of teenage-hood to new heights.

What if you were in the workplace, and every time the boss came around,

your corona went cold and dark?

You might have some explaining to do.

Some people would capitalize on the corona market.

Celebrity-hood would be driven by the halo effect in some pretty tiresome ways.

Someone would find a way to capitalize. They always do.

What if, what if…  we dropped that line of thinking?

I might prefer to keep my corona to myself, thank you very much.

What if we just stuck to the old fashioned bread and butter lines of communication, like words.

What if we just stuck to words like,

“hey, I’ve been missing your face…”

“Because I like you.”

“Shucks.”

What if we used warm smiles…

or cool frowns,

furrowed brows?

I think we can work with that.

We have so many science fiction-like forks in the road of life.

We can fork our way into companionship

with a friendly word and a smile.

 We can fork our way into misery.

With an ugly word and a frown.

So, after some consideration we can see…

We’re better off sticking with reality.

So long as we keep each other safe from strife.

And keeping forking off onto promising paths in life.

Live free from fear and hold one another dear.

Spread the love. But watch out.

It’s contagious!