May Day

A new month makes me feel like I should start something new. As such, I got outside with my camera, and am now sitting here at my computer, thinking and writing.

There has been no dearth of reading for me in the last month. In fact, I’ve been going all-out with the books in the current rotation, to say nothing of all the online tweets, posts, and articles that keep stacking up. The upside-down world we now live in cannot be taken for granted, cannot be simply accepted as a new normal, and cannot be used as an excuse for permanently ripping away our freedoms. I don’t know that I, as just one person, can do much to change anything, and I don’t even know that I am called to, but at the very least, I need to understand what is really at work in the world we inhabit, no matter how ugly, unbelievable, and abhorrent.

Why? Well, that is the question. Literally. Why? is what I always seem to be asking. Why is everybody being so compliant? Why would leaders—and I use that term loosely—be so arbitrary in deciding what is and is not “allowed”? Why would one virus affect so many people so differently? Why would a drug that has kept so many people alive suddenly be vilified?

Such questions are just a smattering of the ones I’ve asked, and definitive answers don’t seem to be forthcoming. That’s fine; it’s about the long tail. Besides, the questions—at least, at this point—are the important things. They lead me on and keep me going.