The Refuge Of Coffee

Feeling various shades of blue. These days may be the end again, of summers' brief foray into pre-pandemic normality. Fortunately, I didn't toss my collection of face masks.  Am I alone in my general confusion? Do I, don't I? Right vs wrong. Currently,. with Delta closely hounded by Lambda, how does my vaccination stack up against this damned, very determined virus? I savor each steaming mug of coffee shop coffee as if it may be a last social event for 2021. 

The CDC is vague.  Governments are hesitant to even whisper of lockdowns lest entire countries erupt. Social media, powered by distractive political agendas, is addicted to regurgitated and pointless lists of "best companies to work for". This is in the midst of the Great Resignation. Despite despotic corporations howling to end extended unemployment benefits, workers steadfastly refuse to return to abusive jobs and environments.  With an average CEO age upwards of 62, maybe it's a generational thing. Can't teach old dogs new tricks. 

We seem to be in some kind of warped version of disconnected worlds where reality is banned. Anybody else getting freaked out by the growing empty spaces on grocery shelves and stores? Feels like being in a bad zombie movie. San Francisco, LA, and Portland no longer even bother to stop blatant shoplifters. WTF?!  It makes one question the point of even trying to be a "good citizen" anymore.  Law and order is fast dimming into a figment of the imagination.

Every week I have a literal screaming match with @BankofAmerica as they steadfastly (despite website BS) refuse to negotiate any level of pandemic financial help. We bailed them out in 2008 with the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act under Secretary Henry Paulson and they have been partying at our expense ever since.  

Housing has become another banking investment portfolio leaving the next generation stranded in the streets or crammed in 300 ft studios that echo a terrifying resemblance to prison cells only with brighter colors.  Homeless people surge in the city streets and once vibrant inner cities are now ghosted with graffiti. 

It's hard not to be scared. It's hard not to be angry. It's getting harder by the day to pretend everything is going to be ok. My brain is in a perpetual state of WTF??! The whole world is literally in chaos with fires, floods and famine.  The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse are tromping in over everything. What comes next? 

My coffee cup is empty.  Am, like so many others, hanging on to hope. Pigs flying type hope. Forget the polka dots, one set of wings will do. 

Change is in the air. What kind? That is up to us. Now.  If not us, then who? 

Bezos can bungee into space, but even he has to return to a rumbling earth and face the music. This is our world, now. Time to smell the coffee and wake up. Being woke is not enough.