Evans’ Rag

Vol 2 Issue 16

Resilience

It’s good to be resilient
standing tall at one or two
if with balance yet to come.

The guts to take a first step
takes us through a life
we never asked for, yet we try.

While smiling at the camera
pleased to please her, even he
who works so hard for our success

they’d laid aside their own
to see us setting out.
Seems cruel this ambition

thinking of them gone
standing old at seventy
forgiving all their dreams of me.

Wildlife Returning

These days, they say you can see the Himalayas from Jalandhar which rise more than 100 miles away. With the ongoing shutdown and far less pollution, the skies in India are clearing, with monkeys and buffalo roaming New Delhi streets.

I’d be curious to know what the skies over Beijing looks like these days. When we were there, we never saw a clear sky, just yellowish overcast.

CNN reports “Kruger National Park is currently shut as part of South Africa's nationwide lockdown” and lions are enjoying the warmth of asphalt roads as a result. Wild boar in South Africa. Mountain goats roaming a town in Wales–Mountain-Goats in Llandudno. Foxes are running in the streets of England with no horsemen in silly riding attire chasing them with beagles and bugles. And the rats are taking over New York City–oh no, sorry, they’ve been running New York for a good while. I kid my NYC friends–all three of them.

There are several morals that could be taken from this. One, that we humans have overrun the planet to an extent we rarely can appreciate, and two, that it won’t take much to wipe us out. We’ll be missed like a bad toothache by the rest of the animal kingdom. King of the world as far as I know, my ass.

Axios has a photo essay of sorts: Coronavirus-Animals-Roam

It’s been overcast the last few days in DC, but you can sail Route 50 into the city with hardly any traffic. Even the politicians have gone home to hunker down. Did I mention rats and their sinking ships? There’s a great Washington bumper sticker: “Don’t blame us; you voted for them.” Say amen, brother.

A late favorite writer on science, Carl Sagan wrote a piece titled The Fine Art of Baloney Detection. You can google the essay directly, or just click on this link, a commentary on his commentary: The Baloney Detection Kit by Maria Popova