I was an early adopter of video games in pizza parlors. One of my favorites was Frogger. At the bottom of the image above a little green and yellow frog waits to cross the highway to get to the logs on the other side. She must weave between race cars, bulldozers, cars, and trucks to do so. Most times the frog(me) gets squished between one vehicle or another.

Since Covid turned regular drivers into speed demons, I often feel that I, in the center lane, am just an obstacle(a car) for that little black car(the frog) driven by a single young male driver trying to get to the right hand exit. He must weave left, then right, then left, then right again to exit. And of course his hyped up buddy, hot on his tail, must do the same. They come up on me so fast that even my blind spot warning can’t light up.

Drivers have been clocked at 130mph(the speed limit is 65) and often can evade the police. Meanwhile the state is debating how to catch the scofflaws. As for me, I now am seeking out the back roads. Sadly those same drivers seem to regard traffic lights and stop signs as suggestions. They ignore them!

I seem to have encountered a problem since I last wrote here. Am trying to fix it!

In one of my favorite Adrienne Rich poems, “Thirty-Three,” she writes, “piece by piece I seem to re-enter the world.” Later she states, “I have invitations.” I am dipping my toe back into writing my blog in a similar way. Several people have encouraged me to post again saying they miss my take on the world.

I must admit that in the present chaos in the United States I often struggle to say something meaningful that is neither Pollyannish nor dystopian. But the world is much bigger than the United States and my thoughts range far beyond the present clamor of politics. Restarting the blog reminds me to focus my thoughts away from the shouting and division back to what endures: story, memory, family, books, the natural world and each other.

See you here tomorrow.