Untitled Poem on Isolation, Written 2021-01-20

 What is a life, bereft of touch,

Wanting to share, but not too much?

Output blocks input, or so they say -

This being how you get through your day;

The sweetest highs, the bitter lows,

All lived alone. Nobody knows.

How can you change, embrace the good,

When solitude threatens to kill the mood?

We learn to choose every path of our lives.

The oaths that we take. The times where we thrive.

We have not been abandoned, neglected, on shelves.

We must, rather, confront all the flaws in ourselves.

And so this is us. Our best. Our worst.

And we come to our best when we put others first.

So we wait, and we struggle to seek out the light.

And we'll touch again soon, at the end of the fight.

- by Alex Greene

Contributing

I've been signed up to a fortnightly volunteers' chat on Zoom. Basically, a way of keeping touch for people who are caring for others.

Today was the first time that I felt like I didn't have anything to contribute. I got through the whole two hours on zoom, and seriously nobody ever turned to me once to ask me how I was, or to express an interest in my activities.

At all.

And one person just dominated the chat. The same one who dominates the chat, every single time. The moment I commented on something, there were a few nice support sounds, and then she just steamrollered over everybody. I tuned out, and my sister was telling me about a care home patient she is looking after, and how that patient got really disturbed last Sunday when the visiting priest, a new chap, tried delivering a blessing while sitting on a chair which turned out to be the care home patient's commode.

And apparently, the Steamroller didn't like that I'd laughed out loud to my sister's anecdote.

Sorry, Steamroller, but I have no interest in someone who wants everyone else to make their lives to be all about you. And I'm seriously considering giving the fortnightly chats the heave ho until they can actually get their act together and make sure everybody gets equal time online to contribute, and not let the Steamroller take up 75% of the time on chat.

Ocarina

Last night, I repurposed a glasses case for my ocarina, Gloria.

 

I really should write more about how ocarinas have changed my life, or something.