It's kind of weird walking to Greenwood Cemetery - in that most people wear masks, but often I'll run across a handful who aren't wearing any at all. They act as if nothing is happening or if it is - it doesn't affect them. It's kind of a reverse of early March, where there was a handful of folks wearing masks and everyone else wasn't.
The other weird thing - which makes me wonder if I'm looking through a portal at an alternate universe or being gaslit is the stupid meetup groups.
They have meetups at diners and cafes for 25 or more. And painting in the park, and walking tours, and social distancing walks - with forty people.
I think they must have decided if people could protest en mass and be fine, they can do meetup group activities?
Some days I really wish I lived in the country miles away from people. Living in the middle of a major urban residential area during a pandemic is just weird.
Church was interesting - the sermon was on the Ancient Greek Creation myth.
Which to be honest isn't all that different than most of the creation myths, it just personalizes the characters a bit more than the Big Bang Theory does. The concept though is about the same - out of chaos comes creation.
Much violence ensues, which is seemingly unnecessary. The sermon however was more about - getting along with your parents and children, honoring them, and accepting changes, without holding too tightly to the past.
At any rate, when I listened to the story of the ancient greeks about how Chronos killed all his kids to prevent them from taking away his power - I thought, hmmm, I didn't realize how close that is to the back story of Kate Daniels in the Illona Andrews books.
Anyhow, took a walk around Greenwood Cemetery - it was a cloudy day, I figured it would have less people. I was kind of wrong about that. There were a lot of walking tours and cars motoring about. Now, Greenwood is about 549 some acres, so...you can avoid people for the most part. It can have 20,000 people and you won't see them - just a handful every once and a while. But instead of going an hour without seeing a soul, I could barely make it more than twenty minutes.
They appeared to have walking tours of about ten people. Even took them through the catacombs. (I don't know - there is no way I'm wandering through the catacombs with a bunch of people I don't know during a pandemic. Sounds blatantly stupid to me. But to each their own.)
The seasons are changing incrementally. I don't think I ever noticed how slowly the seasons change before now. Now, I'm able to watch as the leaves gradually turn from green to yellow to orange to red. Just as in the spring, I watched as everything slowly began to bud. It is comforting. Almost soothing. Seeing how things change in increments. But they do change.
And each day, the world is incrementally different than the last. It gives me time to adjust, to get used to it. Instead of happening all at once.
Everything has kind of been like that. Even the pandemic - it didn't happen all at once. I kind of got eased into it. If I think about it. Now, I'm used to wearing masks, when in March - I couldn't imagine wearing one at all. And worried about getting hold of one. Now - they are everywhere.
Same thing is true about my Dad - it's incremental - the changes. And I'm getting used to it. I'm given time as is my mother, to get used to how he's changed, so it's not quite as painful somehow. It gives us more time. She's adjusting to the home health care aids - the biggest problem is figuring out what to do with them. She's used to do everything for my father.
Anyhow, on my walk I passed several houses with Halloween decorations.
I thought this was by far the most innovative:
Although I admittedly appreciated the folks with Biden/Harris in their front yards...
And..for the Ghostbuster fans out there...
The setting up of Halloween decorations - which have zip to do with the pandemic, lend of an air of normalcy to our neighborhood - showing that life goes on, and even with all these changes, some things can stay the same.
Traditions have that calming sense of normalcy to them. Habit. Routine. Something to depend on. While at the same time, they can, without quite meaning to - cause depression. Not everyone has kids and families to practice these traditions with - after all. And some that do - do not have pleasant or kind ones. I've learned to find my own way - to celebrate in my own way and with my own means. Whether it is putting up a small fake Christmas tree with lights, or buying Halloween candy and watching scary shows. OR doing a Halloween meme. Talking to family.
And keeping in mind that it is temporary, that next year the holiday may end up being different.
Watching the trees change color..makes me realize how impermanent things are - the gravestones crumble, the sky rumbles and turns gray. The world changes as the seasons do. What happened today, will be different tomorrow. And when I'm feeling stressed or blue - that comforts me.
For example? I don't have my headache today. It left. Only briefly threatened to return in the cemetery, but once I got away from whatever was aggravating my sinuses, it disappeared again.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}