The Social Porcupine

Because Earth is currently impaired, I clean houses only about one or two days a week rather than my normal full five-plus ten-hour days. One such day, I returned home after cleaning three houses and collapsed on the couch.  "You busy tomorrow?" My dad asked.  "I have one house, but I can move it around. What's up?" "I'm organizing a protest in town. The Health Department is trying to pass a mandatory face-mask law, and you can get a misdemeanor for not complying." I postponed my house for the following day, woke at 5am on May 28th, then drove myself and some of my siblings to join our dad at the courthouse. Now, this might surprise some of you, but I don't really like protests. I have to be really feeling it to participate. Like, it has to be for an extremely good cause. I've yet to attend a protest that I felt I could put all my passion in. So, I let my dad and siblings hold signs and shout, and I went in to see if I could get into the ac...

Increasingly, we are being forced to recognize the reality and repercussions of where this lockdown is leading us nationally, and even globally. In the name of “voluntary caution” we’ve hidden in our homes, striving to save our own necks or the necks of those we love. But the morning is rising, and when we throw away our masks, what will we see but that we have slit every other man’s neck only to still find blood on our own? For without the sweat of toil, every man is doomed to bleed. Self-preservation is worthless at the feet of paranoia. To speak of the economy has become as distasteful as the topic of politics; as if economics' sole weight is money—pure gold wrought from greed out of the depths of Ayn Rand’s philosophy of selfishness. But just as politics can not be simplified to mean “shady business”, neither can one say that those who care about the future of humanity do not love those who are currently suffering. And yet … because of the fear of death, we have force...

Siblings and I, pushing even our shadows into a future we wish to live in I haven't been purposely silent on the coronavirus. Though, in all honesty, I've actually been quite loud about my opinions. For some reason, they just haven't made it to my blog ... until now. At first, I laughed. It's not that I never believed what was happening ... I just never expected the paranoia to actually become so organized. Even up unto my last days in Germany, it was just a joke. I had bigger stresses, and the virus was amusing. But then ... the borders were closed two days before I flew home and it dawned on me.  This wasn't just any normal virus. People were freaking, and it was going to affect me in ways I didn't like at all. I made it home ... but the home wasn't as I'd left it. My own family were still sensible, as were many of my friends. But, oh, the fear in America was toxic and heavy. My cleaning business pretty much died. I received many messages a...