Jessica Zafra's Blog, page 12

Just a thought

It has just occurred to me that the way you think and act during this period is what you really are. Stay safe and sane, everyone. Later!

Journal of a Lockdown, 24 March 2020

It has just occurred to me that the way you think and act during this period is what you really are. Stay safe and sane, everyone. Later!

Journal of a Lockdown, 23 March 2020

If I were in a position of power, and I could get myself and my family tested for Covid-19, even if none of us show symptoms, ahead of the sick, would I? I would like to say, “Of course not!” and offer to kick the questioner in the nuts, and I think I would not […]

Journal of a Lockdown, 22 March 2020

Two-thirds of my overlords I’ve read some inspirational takes on the current situation, equating staying at home to flatten the curve with storming the beaches at Normandy. What a lovely thought—I wouldn’t go that far, but I agree that the situation requires a great sacrifice. We are giving up our social lives, our career prospects, […]

Journal of a Lockdown, 21 March 2020

The Catholic Church has wisely suspended mass during “enhanced community quarantine” in order to observe social distancing. Even after we get out of here, I’m guessing that holding hands while singing the Our Father, shaking hands as a sign of peace, or dipping your fingers in the communal font will not be back soon. The […]

Journal of a Lockdown, 20 March 2020

Speaking of Revelations, here’s William Blake. Yesterday I received reports of people planning to loot a supermarket, or blocking cars on streetcorners to demand money from the passengers. I took them seriously because they triggered my fear of food riots during enhanced ultramega super community quarantine. Fortunately they turned out to be fake news—like the […]

Journal of a Lockdown, 19 March 2020

My days have begun to blur into each other: I have to check my phone to see what day is. It’s only been 4 days, 13 percent of our communal sentence. I remembered an essay about the voyage of Magellan and how scurvy (severe vitamin C deficiency; adjective: scorbutic) not only caused sailors’ bodies to […]

Journal of a Lockdown, 18 March 2020

Santa Maria della Salute in Venice, built in the 17th century in gratitude for the end of an outbreak of plague. Photo taken 2015. I hear the water is clearer now. It was cooler all day yesterday, probably the last gasp of the Siberian winds before summer fully sizzles, and might it have something to […]

Journal of a Lockdown, 17 March 2020

Why do I have the compulsion to watch Beavis and Butt-head? I’m trying to figure out where my day went because it’s almost midnight and I haven’t gotten any writing done. All the time that lockdown was supposed to free up was consumed by the latest round of uncertainty. My plan had been to go […]

Journal of a Lockdown, 16 March 2020

I don’t watch horror movies because my brain won’t shut up afterwards, and I can’t sleep from imagining worst-case scenarios. What if the heroes are overwhelmed? What if an ally turns? What if the big bad can’t be destroyed that way? It’s my work. Fiction-writing entails answering a series of What if’s, usually with very […]