May you live in interesting times.
Apocryphally attributed to the ancient Chinese, this curse can be mistaken for a blessing. It’s the first of three curses, the other two: May you be known to people in power and May all your wishes come true. To me, they sound more Irish than Chinese, but the origins are lost in the mists of the foggy past.
Whatever the origins, I feel most of us have had our fill of interesting times. Taking myself for example, JFK, MLK, and RFK were assassinated: the Vietnam War and all the protests consumed the country; Nixon resigned; the Iranians held the hostages; we were shocked and awed by the Gulf War; I watched the towers collapse on 9/11; and we’ve been in a nearly constant state of low level war ever since. Now we find ourselves in a pandemic the likes of which hasn’t been seen since the Spanish Influenza of 1918.
I suspect most generations faced their own major trials. My parents were born into the depression and World War II. My grandparents faced that other pandemic and World War I. Go back further, my ancestors lived through the Great Hunger in Ireland and the American Civil War. As a people we pull through, but some fall aside. Their story stops and we can only wonder what might have been. As for me, I’ve had enough of interesting times.
Blogger’s note: I wrote this last week and thought it had been published, but either through my fault or the site’s, it hadn’t been. There’s another one from last week I’ll publish tomorrow. And since, I have some serious time on my hands, I’ll try to write another today. As you can imagine-and may very well be going through yourselves-things are changing at a rapid pace here in my pandemic place in the world. Stay healthy, folks. We’re all in this together (alone). #lastfirstkiss #love #aging #fiction #coronavirus #covid-19 #nyc #pandemic #newjersey #bergen
The Last First Kiss 