I hate to look at politics, generally, but these days all my friends are a little anxious. It did not help that the last presidential debate was far from presidential! And to top everything, the White House is now floating the story that the president and the first lady have tested positive for the covid virus, which could very well be true.
At the best of times I am fairly inactive; in these days of sheltering in place, I stay home except for a walk around the block each day. My figure was never svelte, but now I am getting alarmingly fleshy all over, which makes me worry.
Meanwhile, I'm getting a little concerned that I have never written a story involving a black protagonist. (Actually, I sort of have; if you've read Music on the Galactic Voyager, you might recall Megan Barrows, who was the EVA specialist, whom Helen fell almost in love with. I loved writing that part of the story, which gave a beautiful texture to the period of time right after Helen has the Twins. But Megan is not a typical black woman, though I think I have invested her story with a little of the concerns that Blacks have, or at least what outsiders imagine that they have.)
Lalitha, Sita and Suresh are Indians, and in a foolish moment I described them as being fair of complexion; they need not have been described that way. In terms of their thinking and behavior, though, I think they are fairly typical, judging from the several Indian friends I knew in college and in graduate school.
In my paper-and-pen scribblings that form the origins of the Helen story, there are a few more accounts of Helen's friendships with men and women from Spanish-speaking countries, but they never made it into the Helen story that has got published. There was even a hermaphrodite among them, an extraordinarily loving woman, who belongs to a very conservative family, and for whom the unusual physical feature prevented her from marrying, though she longed to marry. (Bear in mind that this story came out of my fevered brain, and was not inspired by an actual person.)
As far as the outcome of the election is concerned, since the only part of my civic responsibility that I will undertake is to vote, I will not talk about all the upsetting things that Democrats are being threatened with. I am not a member of the Democrat Party, but when it comes to being threatened with violence, I count myself as one of them. Unlike Donald Trump, my college and university education makes it impossible to do otherwise than think rationally, even if I unwittingly betray that training occasionally, in my fiction. Many of Trump's most ardent followers, I feel, have difficulty following the logic that leads to legislation that the Democrats have supported. Many of them believe the conspiracy theories manufactured for their consumption by the leadership of the GOP, and some members of the News Media, just to make things interesting for themselves.
I might watch the Vice-Presidential debate for a few minutes--or seconds--just because I'm curious as to how Kamala Harris would deal with the twisted logic that Mike Pence uses!
We don't have long to wait; there will be Halloween with few of the usual amusements (except for scofflaws in counties such as ours, where it is common to see tubby little kids grabbing candy like there's no tomorrow during Halloween, between extremely polite young people, carefully taking two pieces of candy and no more! I wish there were an alternative to candy, but it's too much part of our culture. I often dress up, out of respect for the Trick-Or-Treaters, and this time, I hear on the grapevine, that there are costume exchanges for those who can't afford a new one. (That will unfortunately deal a blow to those who make costumes as a living. Still, I support recycling anything, rather than consuming fresh materials, for something as trivial as Halloween costumes, though it admittedly gives a lot of joy to a lot of people. What can I say.
For all the young people, bored to tears by having to stay at home: try writing a little fiction! Write a two-page story on one of these themes:
- Stealing out after dark with a friend, and having a good fright!
- Visiting a friend in a foreign country, and unexpectedly being caught in a temporary lockdown.
- Two or three friends sign up to compete to sing at a fair. Two of them can play guitar, or ukulele, and they practice, and get selected to sing at the finals!
