A Vignette of a Man on a Mission to meet his Mate

COVID-19 is a vicious disease and as ephemeral as smoke. There isn’t any social distancing at the airport. Oh yeah, people start out 6 feet or 2 meters apart or so, and then all efforts fall apart with kids underfoot, cantankerous libertarians, confused idealists, families freaking out over minor technoapocalypses such as all their flight information seemingly vanishes from their smartfones between cybercracks in the wifi, officials in uniform interrupting and waving their arms ever whicha way, clouds of shampoo and sweat and coconut pomade and invisible floating parasites including vast hordes of invisible killer cooties, i.e. invasive novel coronaviruses. We’re at the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, too. I’m traveling solo, and I am in the company of fellow bipedal social mammals.

Wow, a whiff of sage from someone somewhere lingers in the air triggering flashback memories to explorations of Washington Desert Coulee Country.

Anxious people grow more fearful of missing their flights or keeping their jobs. They strain and push out in all directions beyond social distancing markers on the floor and lean over human fencing straps as if searching for … God? Continue reading →