Day 36 – Sacrifice
The Age
It was the age of toilet paper shortages;
it was the age of puzzle shortages.
It was a time of masks and ventilators,
a time when few had enough,
and some had too much.
It was a time of testing, of being tested,
and waiting to be tested,
and a time to wait for results.
It was the time when nobody could go anywhere,
and everyone wanted to go to work,
a time of confusion, questions, and misinformation,
and a time of heroic sacrifice and hope.
It was a time of worry and a time of concern,
a time to watch, and a time for patience.
It was the time when we lived,
and the time we died.
Friday’s Theme Music
Back in 1985, I was traveling frequently with the military. Based in South Carolina, I was a frequent visitor to California, Florida, Virginia, and New Jersey. Between them, I spent months in South Korea and Egypt, dashed through Spain, and part of a week in Belgium. This travel all revolved around war readiness planning and exercising.
Somewhere in those travels, I picked up on a song called “Live is Life”. I’d heard the song but didn’t know who did it. It didn’t seem to have much playtime in America. Eventually I hunted it down and discovered it was by Opus, from Austria.
Anyway, as I adjusted to today’s limited agenda and travel plans and admired spring’s growing presence outside, the song returned to me. It’s a jaunty song without deep lyrics, kind of odd as a rock song — more pop than rock –but it’s easy to sing.
Thursday’s Theme Music
Looking out, sipping coffee, I questioned myself, seeking the day and date. Wow, the sixteenth, half of April is already gone. Thursday again, already? It seemed like we just had one. Pretty soon, it’ll be the weekend all over again.
The weekend doesn’t have much true meaning for me. Military existence as a shift worker made them moot. When I joined management, it changed, and I kind of got the hang of it, mostly due to my wife saying, “It’s the weekend. We should do something.”
Everyone seemed to have a mindset around the weekend – do something, or do nothing. Meanwhile, since dropping out of the employment world to enter the sinister world of being a novelist, I’ve drifted back out of the weekend thing. Everyday is for writing in my world, but I still clash with the rest of the world and its idea of the weekend (along with those pesky interruptions called ‘holidays’).
Weirdly, out of all this, the song by the Killers, “Human” (2008), splashed into my thought stream.
I did my best to notice
When the call came down the line
Up to the platform of surrender
I was brought but I was kind
And sometimes I get nervous
When I see an open door
Close your eyes, clear your heart
Cut the cord
h/t to Genius.com
Interesting to me but probably no one else how my mind jumps through these connections. It makes me smile.
That could be the coffee, though.
Wednesday Theme Music
I’ve done this song before, but it just fits so well to these times, when people are social-distancing and can’t go anywhere.
‘Cause I’m stuck in the middle with you
And I’m wondering what it is I should do.
It’s so hard to keep this smile from my face.
Losing control and running all over the place.
Clowns to the left of me!
Jokers to the right!
Here I am stuck in the middle with you.
It can apply to being at home with your, ahem, loved ones (or their reaction to you), or the cat’s reaction to your continual presence. Or there you are in a store, trying to maintain safe distance while you re-supply, all masked, while an idiot behind you ignores it all.
It can even be political, if you think that these are special times which require special leadership, that sadly, you perceive we might be lacking…
Here’s Stealer Wheels with “Stuck in the Middle with You”, from 1973.
Michael Seidel, writer 