Essential Apostrophe


          Whacha been doing since we last talked?

          A decision tree bloomed in my head.

          I considered, for approximately .07 of a second, replying with a brief explanation of the various philosophy books, video-synopses, websites, and—subsequently formed—logical insights I'd come up with on aesthetics, fallacies and personal politics... and how all that related to the ongoing pandemic from my point-of-cloister; which caused me to focus/trip over how pretentious that-all might sound if it were dumped into my unprepared ear-brain.

          So I shifted to considering (for an additional .14  of a second) a nutshell-sketch of my recent art collages:  how I'd created them after perusing thousands of images—over scores of hours—for just the right fit to tell just the right story, to engage my viewers for an extended moment of their lives and (hopefully) cause them to think about what that specific image is asking them to feel, which is the same as what I, the composer, am hoping to communicate.  Which, unfortunately, caused me to realize;  a conversation of this magnitude would require visuals, and a friendly talk was not the place for a PowerPoint presentation.

          For the next full second I thought about the things I'd done since we'd last talked:  I'd gone to a drive-in theater with four screens to choose from (two films at each) and each screen had it's own audio over a different FM radio station.  But.  It was just a drive-in.  It was just Empire Strikes Back...  Also, I'd:  hiked with my cats a few times, gone picnicking, had a campfire, gone to a museum filled with hundreds of hand carved birds, and explored parts of the Green Mountains as well as the islands in Lake Champlain with my wife.  But those were just special things to us.  It was just sightseeing.

          Same-old same-old.  Tryin' not to catch it again.  Or spread it if I'm still contagious.  Keepin' busy.  You?

          Not much different.  Can't wait for this to be over so I can go back to work.  Back to normal.

          I wondered about asking: what if that's never possible - if wearing masks and staying separate was forever - if the education paradigm was going to become 90% online/virtual and the 10% hands-on requirements were going to be held in sterile environments with 14-day quarantines whenever someone entered - if full-body spacesuits were going to be a thing - if . . . nah . . . too pessimistic. 

          I thought you were an essential worker.

          Who're es..essential workers.

          The preferred term's sex worker; I'm pretty sure they aren't.

          Hunh?  Now I'm confused.

          Asked if you were essential and it sounded like you said whores are essential.

          Oh.  The apostrophe in who-are is essential.  I'm not.


comprised of photos titled apostrophe by:

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