Today the sun sets at 4:08pm
That's 12 min. later than it did on December 22, the day of the winter solstice. But it rises tomorrow at the same time, 7:55am, as it did then. I haven't taken note of these subtle changes before. Of course the source of this information is the weather app on my iPhone, so you should check more reliable sources before spreading it.
I will never be the recorder of my times that Samuel Pepys was of his in the diaries he kept during the 1660s in England. I'm not meticulous by nature. However, in the slow pace of my present life I am more aware of some details and that is what made me think of Pepys recently. When I read an edited version of his diaries in university, I was awed by the minutiae of his observations of the 1666 fire of London, his honest account of his own life and his comments on the Great Plague of 1665, but I hadn't thought much about it again until recently. Just as the knowledge that plagues in London had interrupted Shakespeare’s career a few times had added little more than local colour to my first readings of his plays. I had imagined what it would be like to stand on a street and watch a play that rolled by on wagons, each presenting different scene or act. The fact that this was happening because the actors couldn't perform in big theatres in London because of plague meant relatively little to me. What a failure of imagination on my part. I'm thinking and reading more now about those and other times of plague. Heaven knows I have time, and maybe the fact that I'm no longer young and healthy makes me more sensitive to the horrors of disease. Also, one can tire of looking out the window at the falling snow, beautiful as it is.
We hear so much these days about how we are living in unprecedented times: Covid 19; the inglorious end of the Trump fiasco; the increasing awareness of the threat we humans are to the world's environment; mass human migrations caused by war, climate change and unscrupulous governments; the Black Lives Matter movement coupled with the rising recognition of Indigenous values and rights. These are turbulent times, but not unprecedented. In the long history of human life on earth, even just in the last 500 years there have been precedents. In Pepys time, 1660s England was returning to monarchy and at war with the Dutch while London suffered from the Great Plague and the Great Fire. Many periods in human history have experienced catastrophe, and it's always the poor and disadvantaged who suffer most.
Now that's PPE!
I'm not suffering. My back and knees are making me realize my age. At 74, it's about time. Staying alone at home much of the time is a physical necessity as much as it is a government mandate in this time of Covid 19. I see three of my friends quite regularly, FaceTime, email, message and phone others and Kakaotalk with Jay every evening. I finally saw the physio on December 30. He gave me gentle exercises to do twice a day for my knees. I go for two short walks a day and am trying to fight off the need to take osteoporosis medication by altering my diet a bit, cutting out caffeine and uping my intake of greens and veg. in general. As long as I don't have to give up butter and cheese, I can do it. In fact I am invigorated by making the changes necessary for this new regime. I like having routines. I can go for ages without much change, but sometimes a change is not only as good as a rest it's as good as the addition of rosemary to roast potatoes. I learned that trick a few years ago. It's one thing I'm not going to change.
My Christmas treats from Jay, May and the girls. May says the jacket is popular in Korea this year. She says the English translation of the Korean name is something like double sheep because it's as furry inside as out.
Me wearing my double sheep on a walk in Polson Park
I hope that in 2021 we will be able to gather like these ducks in Polson Park.
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