Plague Journal, Music, Manners, Nature
Not too long ago, I was introduced to a candidate who is running for the Illinois Senate. I took a piece of campaign literature which I kept. I’ve examined the message and the layout of the piece at some length. The banner tagline is three words that sum up this candidates programme. Stimulated to think about my own entree, as someone who aspires to write, what would my tagline be? Three words in the title of this post would be a good start: Music, Manners, and Nature.
The pandemic condition is certain to be with us for some months to come. Those of us who understand that the potential for grave illness is real, have adapted to wearing a mask when in public places, and practicing social distancing at all times.
On Saturday evening my wife and I decided to spend the evening enjoying the Riverwalk in downtown Batavia. At days end in the twilight the Fox River is serene, sublime. As we approached the river we heard the sound of live music coming from the backside of Bar Evolution which is one of the “restaurant row” businesses on the west bank of the river. Attracted as always by live music we walked the footbridge crossing the river. We could see a female vocalist with keyboard working with a male-partner drummer. Also visible was a bar sparsely populated and a line of small round tables for four, waiting for patrons. Calculating the benefit of enjoyment verses the risk factor entailed in the seating arrangement, numbers of people, etc. — we crossed the bridge. We sat content for an hour with the beauty of the river to one side and the melodies and compositions of Dina Bach on the other.
How does one live without live music?
A party! We had the pleasure of being with family members to celebrate the 45th birthday of one of our daughters. Our extended family seriously practices social distancing. We do gather on occasion to celebrate important milestones. A birthday calls for a get-together to mark the occasion. A party by definition is happy chaos. Three generations of people were active in serving food, in conversation, in dashing around the yard, climbing the chain link fence, etc. I captured this photograph. The image is iconic of one of the requisites for civilization: good manners. Wilber has been taught to sit on his side of the couch. He sits — observing the room with contentment. The animal’s regal bearing even coincides with the the art on the wall.
Nature is a living thing, a organism-like community of vegetative, animal, and perhaps mineral “life.” (depends on your definition of life) I planted two containers of corn, for decorative visual effect in the yard. The ears were beginning to mature on a container of blue corn. Saturday morning we discovered that a visit was made in the night by an 
animal with enough intelligence and dexterity to strip the ears from the stalks. We have one more container that may or may not be visited by a hungry ________ . My guess — the visitor was a racoon.
Finally a photo of smallish pink blooms that appear to be cone flowers. Were the seeds planted here in the past by someone, or conveyed, serendipitous by a bird?
