CoronaFest 2020

CoronaFest 2020: La Cerveza por los Tiempos Enfermos 

     You can rest assured that Deluge of Lethe is monitoring the COVID-19 situation closely and we have made the difficult decision to try to post more frequently in the event that elective procedures at the hospital are cancelled and Jen becomes relegated to the category of "nonessential personnel" (only hearts are in my scope of practice, i.e. I don't do sputum and droplets.  We have a joke in healthcare that we select our fields based on which bodily fluids bother us the least.).  Please know that your health and safety remain our number one priority and that is why we recommend the practices of washing your hands after handling soap bottles, disinfecting your friends/family/pets, not venturing out without full hazmat gear, eating green leafy vegetables (unless you take warfarin), and using social distancing to your advantage ("I'm not antisocial - I'm corona-conscious.").  Is anyone else thinking nostalgically to themselves..."why wasn't social distancing a thing when I was in high school?"  How refreshing it is not to need an excuse for sitting alone, it's the new cool.  But not as refreshing and cool as a bottle of Corona with lime, a joy that is rapidly evaporating as bars in Florida close down for thirty days of teetotalism. 

Coronavirus.  No, just kidding, it's actually herpes.

    OK, hopefully by now I've been able to put a smile on your face (remotely, of course) in these difficult times.  When this all blows over, I think it's our civic duty to go out and have a Corona (for illustrative purposes only; I'm not on InBev's payroll) at our local drinking establishments.  Remember the folks who depend on tips and who are not making money during this time (in addition to probably not having paid sick time or health insurance).  

     

Juxta-poser

     OK, so what could Walden Pond and The Scream possibly have in common (yes, that is the actual Walden Pond, not a random photo produced by Creative Commons' search engine as a response to the query "tranquil pond."  What kind of charlatan do you take me for?)?  Thoreau and Munch were not contemporaries but they just barely missed the overlap - Thoreau died in 1862 and Munch was born in 1863.  In Walden, Thoreau reveals the unsettling news that "the mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation."  I think his choice of the word quiet is especially significant; poignant, even.  Walden Pond is quiet but The Scream certainly is not.  Of the two, which is preferable?  How many times do we find ourselves outwardly expressing an image of poised stillness such as Walden Pond while inside we are the very essence of this hairless person halted in a mid-fjord traverse by an overwhelming sensation that aligns us, without our express consent, with a primal anguish from the collective unconscious?