Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
----------------------------W. B. Yeats, The Second Coming
Yeats wrote those words over a century ago amid the last pandemic but it damn sure feels like he was talking about present times. The more things change, the more they stay the same, eh?
The advertising salespeople have been peddling their doom and gloom for so long that I think I've caught a case of apocalypse fatigue. Can't hardly help but chuckle as I skim the headlines these days.
PUTIN WON'T RULE OUT USING NUKES!!!!!!
Would you have believed him if he had?
Maybe I read too many Tom Clancy novels as a kid but this just feels like a rerun of the 80s. Russia is invading one of its neighbors, the president is half senile, we're supplying weapons to whoever will fire them at Russians, everybody's fretting about nuclear and chemical weapons. Or as they called it in the Reagan years, Wednesday.
The nice thing about history repeating itself is that in order for it to do so, life must go on. Rome fell and now it's skeletal remains are tourist attractions. Guess there are fates worse than death.
Remember, always look on the bright side of life. Nuclear winter would sure make global warming less of a problem.
Until next time, y'all stay safe.