Monday, March 15, 2021

Beware! - 15 March 2021 - Plague Journal Day 368

Micah 6:8
Romans 14:5-6
Yes, your life matters.


We all are still sheltering in place, but I'm here to keep you sane and entertained.
One could hardly ask for much more than that, now could one?

Beware the Ides of March! After all, 2,064 years ago it was a bad day for Julius Caesar, so we should all be very afraid. That puts me in mind of something I just "learned" (= heard on a TV show but I haven't actually confirmed it yet) - that Friday the 13th is considered unlucky because that was the date (October 13) when the Knights Templar were rounded up to be executed. I thought it went back farther than the 14th century, but again, I haven't done any real research to find out. [again, small sample size, use with caution.]
Also dying on the Ides of March (but in 1937) was H. P. Lovecraft. What an amazing writer he was. His stories, without being gory nor overly descriptive manage to engage the imagination with horrors almost unimaginable. (Note - almost unimaginable. I don't think the imagination can imagine the unimaginable, do you?) Like all people, he was influenced and shaped by the culture in which he lived, but surely we enlightened moderns can read writings from the past with their original context in mind, can we not? (If not, how can we assert that we're better than they were?)
I highly recommend his writings. If nothing else, you'll never look at Antarctica the same way.


By the way, yesterday was not only pie day (pi day - 3/14) but also Albert Einstein's birthday. Happy Birthday, Al!


Keep Calm and Stay Away.
I'll be back tomorrow.
The mental health issues related to our lockdown and the pandemic are especially hard for people with depression. NAMI, the National Alliance on Mental Illness, has a 24 hour helpline: 800-950-6264.

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