1. Over the course of the last eleven months or so, I have spent the vast majority of my time at home out of an abundance of caution. I don't want to contract Covid-19 and I don't want to spread it. Having made this decision, not out of fear, but in what I consider a rational manner, I have committed myself to making the most of the time I've spent sequestered in my house -- reading, watching college basketball games, keeping in electronic contact with friends through texting, Zooming, messaging, and talking on the phone, working puzzles, watching movies and television programming, writing, cooking, not drinking alone very often, and, over the last month, caring for Luna and Copper.
As I come to understand more fully how spending many hours alone is affecting many other people adversely, I consider myself fortunate that I've learned to enhance certain aspects of my life during this time of solitude.
All that said, for the first several hours I was awake today, things felt a bit heavy. I didn't want to fall into a state of melancholy. I wasn't feeling quite up to reading the book on whales I've started, so I perked myself up a bit by completing an acrostic puzzle.
Then I returned to Bill Davie's new book of poetry, The Pandemic Suite, and I suddenly decided that it would lift my spirits to read his poems while eating unbuttered, unsalted popcorn. I have no idea why I suddenly craved this combination of poetry and popcorn, but it worked. I dove into the many currents of Bill's poems and munched on the small bowl of popcorn I fixed and vitality returned. I was energized. I felt like my regular sequestered self again!
2. Last night, I tuned into the Ducks' men's basketball team's game against the Trojans with trepidation and my anxiety turned out to be warranted as the Ducks got hammered by USC.
Late this afternoon, I tuned in to watch St. John's play Villanova and I felt a similar sense of dread. Yes, just three weeks ago, St. John's hosted Villanova in Queens, NY and played a stellar game and upset the Wildcats. But I had feelings of doom about the rematch. Villanova would be highly motivated to avenge their earlier loss and the game was being played on Villanova's home court.
Once again, my pregame jitters were warranted. Villanova pounced on St. John's, streaked to an early 10-2 lead which they expanded into a 42-25 lead by halftime and cruised to an overpowering 81-58 victory.
Nothing worked for the Johnnies, I'm aggrieved to say. Their press didn't force turnovers. They shot poorly from beyond the three point arc. They couldn't contain Villanova's offense and Villanova, time and time again, got just the shots they wanted and consistently converted them.
In their first outing, St. John's imposed its collective will on Villanova. Their pressing defense sped up Villanova. St. John's clamped down on the Wildcat's superb point guard, Colin Gillespie, forcing him into uncharacteristic mistakes, thus throwing the Villanova offense out of whack.
Tonight's game was the opposite. Villanova dictated the game's tempo, protected the ball, got superb play out of their reserves, and defended St. John's aggressively, never letting the Johnnies get into any kind of productive flow.
I haven't checked to see if there's a Wednesday night game I'm jittery about. If there is, maybe I should spare myself the suffering of watching it!
3. Well, no jitters at 7:00 this evening! I fixed myself a cup of hot chocolate (no rum or brandy) and tuned into tonight's Tree House Concert featuring Bill Davie singing a fine selection of his own songs and taking us back to his childhood and singing songs his dad loved to sing. The first was an early bird special before he actually visually arrived on Facebook Live and the second during his concert. Bill also commemorated the passing this week of the legendary poet, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, who died at the age of 101, by reading a selection of his poems. Bill's energetic musical performance and superb reading of the poems helped me to further emerge out of the temporary funk I'd been in earlier in the day.
I was most thankful.
No comments:
Post a Comment