Prisoner of the Present

​We are prisoners of the present, in perpetual transition
​from an inaccessible past to an unknowable future.
 --Neil deGrasse Tyson on Twitter

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Every so often I forget everything is different now.  I leave the house to go for a walk and realize suddenly I've forgotten my mask and rush home to get it.  I think to myself I will run over to Trader Joe's for some of my favorite TJ's Olive Oil Potato Chips and Carmel Swirl Ice Cream, and maybe pick up some fresh flowers and then I realize there is always a line now waiting to get into the crowded little store and fear overtakes me, so I stay home and order groceries from Stater's or Ralphs' via Instacart.  

For some reason, this song started playing in my head:

Well I don't know why I came here tonight,
I got the feeling that something ain't right,
I'm so scared in case I fall off my chair,
And I'm wondering how I'll get down the stairs,
Clowns to the left of me,
Jokers to the right, here I am,
Stuck in the middle with you

​--Stuck In The Middle With You · Stealers Wheel

Starting the ninth week here in California of the "stay at home" order, it is difficult, nay, impossible to not feel like a prisoner.  As Dr Tyson said recently, we are indeed prisoners of the present in every sense of the word.  We cannot return to "normal: the time before the pandemic" nor can we move forward to  the "new normal: time post the pandemic".  So I along with everyone else,  am stuck in this state of perpetual transition.   No wonder I occasionally fell like I've gone mad.

So here we are.  Stuck.  In the middle.  Remembering how it once was...not so long ago.  And wondering how it will be...someday somehow, when this all passes.  And it will pass.  But who will we be?  Who will I be?  Will I even be alive to see it?   Do I want to see it?  Only time will tell.  Meanwhile, "prisoners of the present" waiting to see when we will break the virus' hold on us and set us free.

​Meanwhile, here's the video from the movie Reservoir Dog.  It is also now the theme song for Netflix' Grace and Frankie