Well, here we are, many of us cooped up inside of our homes, many of us unemployed, many of us facing for whatever reason a shortage of what has now become emblematic of civilization: toilet paper. 

So below is some trifling nonsense I hope will provide a chuckle and take you away, even for a few moments, from our present national difficulties.

https://www.intellectualtakeout.org/staying-sane-in-a-pandemic/

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An editor, Annie, for intellectualtakeout.com, which publishes some of my essays, recently wrote me a kind note and in this dark time sent me this bit of cheer from another "Annie." It made me smile, and I hope it will do the same for you. Just click and paste, please.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KahOD-93D7U

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When we are hit with disaster, a pandemic like this virus or a horrible personal loss, sometimes beauty may help us weather our distress and horrible trials. Here is a song of sadness and beauty that reminds us of our fragility. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9kWRpPy1ic&list=RDF9kWRpPy1ic&start_radio=1

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Stressed out? Feeling cooped up? All these days with the kids out of school driving you crazy? Tired of the doomsday news? Feel on the inside like the dude below looks on the outside?

Serenity Now! Watch it here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ow_9MglZrhs

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I am bemused by our pandemic--not the coronavirus, but by our pandemic of hysteria and fear in our reactions. I'll be posting a few articles here, but first a poem to remind us, as Shakespeare wrote, "By my troth, I care not; a man can die but once; we owe God a death and let it go which way it will he that dies this year is quit for the next."

The article below appeared at The Epoch Times on March 26: https://www.theepochtimes.com/glimpses-of-heaven-icons-paintings-prayer-and-meditation_3278704.html
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​In the spring, just before my homeschooling seminars closed for the summer, my Latin students and I would head to the Basilica of Saint Lawrence in Asheville, North Carolina. We would gather in the courtyard outside the church, and I would issue my usual admonitions: whisper, don’t disturb those praying in the side chapel, walk, don’t run, and be respectful.
 
I then divided the students into teams, equipped each team with a Latin dictionary, and turned them loose inside the Basilica, where they engaged in a scavenger hunt, copying down the Latin inscriptions they found there and then translating them. I roamed from team to team, giving a hand with the translations or pointing them to a site they had missed. Most were a little shocked when I pulled open a heavy metal door in the wall, showed them the tomb of Rafael Guastavino, the architect who had designed the Basilica and donated money for its construction, and had them translate the Latin on the coffin.
           
Some of my students were Roman Catholics, and some were unaffiliated with any religion, but the great majority were devout Protestants, many of them members of the traditional Presbyterian Church in America. On first entering that sanctuary with its statues and paintings, its bank of votive candles, and the handful of people kneeling in prayer in Eucharistic adoration, my Protestant students inevitably paused while they absorbed these strange sights. 

If you live in Western North Carolina, or if you care about local newspapers, please read the article posted below, and if you have means, please contribute to the Smoky Mountain News. For 20 years, I have published book reviews there, but this is not about me. It's about the survival of a paper that helps make a community.

Below you will find both the link  and the entire article. 

All my best, dear readers,
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Jeff 

https://smokymountainnews.com/aae/item/28751-the-coronavirus-and-the-smoky-mountain-news

No book review today. 

But please read this column.

First, you need some pertinent facts. 

I ran a bed-and-breakfast and a bookstore in Waynesville for 20 years, and with some overlap, taught literature, history, and Latin in Asheville for another 20 years. I am now a freelance writer.

For the last 20 years, I have written book reviews for The Smoky Mountain News, but I am not on staff at the paper. 

In other words, I have only a small stake in what I am asking here. 

​Now to the subject literally at hand, namely the newspaper you are reading. 

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This one's just for those of you who come here. Not published elsewhere.

The good things in life...they're important to remember in tough times. Here's a reminder from deceased singer Israel K. of Hawaii. I love the way he blends these two songs. I'm listening again as I post the link here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3BeKhlUzPUc

All my best to everyone on this warm and gray Virginia night!

Another poem from a good while back. I have written little poetry these last years, though poems for a time in my life meant the world to me. You can carry them in your head and heart, and work on them all day long, as opposed to any other sort of writing.  No idea where most of these bits of verse once came from. Anyway, meet Miranda:

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Midnight
 
She calls herself Miranda,
A bayou Cajun queen,
Who haunts the street called Bourbon,
The heart of New Orleans.
 
Her black hair’s laced with ribbons,
Her eyes as blue as sky,
And when she sings at midnight,
She makes the sailors cry.
 
Tattoos of scarlet dragons
Curl down her shoulder blades:
Her ears are bright with gemstones
That glitter in the shade.
 
Her jeans are ripped and tattered,
Her blouse is made of sighs,
And when she sings at midnight,
She makes the hustlers cry.
 
She sings the songs of Verdi,
Puccini, Mozart, Bizet.
She sings of lovers dying
And steals our breath away.
 
She sings as well the Delta,
Twists blues to lullaby,
And when she sings at midnight,
She makes the pavements cry.
 
She never thanks her donors,
Who fill her bowl with bills.
But stares into the darkness
Her music seeks to fill.
 
Too soon the spell is ended,
Too soon the music dies,
But when Miranda sings at midnight,
She makes the angels cry.

 Some advice aimed at our young people. This article recently appear in The Epoch Times. Please click and paste. 

https://www.theepochtimes.com/engaging-the-world-some-lessons-for-the-young_3264326.html