On Sunday, April 5, 2020, my friend, Ken Stark, age 72, died in King David Nursing and Rehabilitation Center, almost certainly from COVID-19 (he had the symptoms of the virus, but the nursing home didn’t have the test for it and didn’t diagnose him with it). Ken was in the nursing home, declining, and on hospice because of Parkinson’s Disease, which he suffered with for at least the last fifteen years of his life. Before he went into the nursing home Ken and I would often greet each other and say goodbye with, “Montana to Rice!” Ken lived for much of his adult life in San Francisco and loved the the Forty-Niners, especially Joe Montana and Jerry Rice, whom some have named the “best quarterback-wide receiver duo of all time” (clutchpoints.com). They were known for getting the Forty-Niners out of difficult situations with almost miraculous passes and catches. When Ken and I said “Montana to Rice!” to each other, we were telling each other we would, together, get through and even turn into wins the struggles he was facing. Ken was also an artist and loved golf.
COVID-19 Diary: 4/5/20
The thumping runner
in the gentle morning light
sets the heart’s rhythm.
COVID-19 Diary: 4/4/20
My masked neighbor walks
out into the wild unknown
of the neighborhood.
In and of the world 44
Gnarled branches sway in,
slim twigs dance, the delicate
musings of breezes.
COVID-19 Diary: 3/31/20
As he dies without
anyone he knows, the nurse
caring for him weeps.
Domesticity: Stephon Harris and the Performance of Empathy
Roy Herndon Smith https://www.ted.com/talks/stefon_harris_there_are_no_mistakes_on_the_bandstand?language=en I wept as I listened to this performance. Stefon Harris describes and demonstrates how jazz happens, how the performers in an ensemble are continually empathically (“empathy” is Harris's word, in an interview on NPR's Morning Edition on March 30, 2020, for what is happening) listening, attuning themselves, and responding to each…
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COVID-19 Diary: 3/29/20
What I am missing,
in the eerie quiet of
social distancing:
COVID-19 Diary 3/28/20
In refugee camps,
detention centers, slums, bombed
and flooded cities,