And the people stayed home. And read books, and listened, and rested, and exercised, and made art, and played games, and learned new ways of being, and were still. And listened more deeply. Some meditated, some prayed, some danced. Some met their shadows. And the people began to think differently.

And the people healed. And, in the absence of people living in ignorant, dangerous, mindless, and heartless ways, the earth began to heal.

And when the danger passed, and the people joined together again, they grieved their losses, and made new choices, and dreamed new images, and created new ways to live and heal the earth fully, as they had been healed."

~Kitty O'Meara'~

A sensational Parisian scandal in 1386 escalated into France’s last trial by combat. Was it all just a case of mistaken Identity?  

Self-Isolated Woman Going So Crazy She’s Started Talking To Her Spouse The Onion

Man’s supportive tweets and posts getting on everyone’s titsDaily Mash

Chinese mask entrepreneur reaps $1.9bn coronavirus bonanza FT

Wall Street flees coronavirus and glimpses its mortality FT. What about others’ mortality?

Wall Street is in lockdown. Like Mr Lemkau, many of its troops have taken flight from their natural habitat in Manhattan to ride out the pandemic in second homes and vacation properties in Southampton, Palm Beach, the Hudson River Valley and other fashionable locales.

Just wait two weeks… As I wrote.

‘They’re putting us all at risk’: What it’s like working in Amazon’s warehouses during the coronavirus outbreakCNBC. Maybe Jeff could set up a GoFundMe for hand sanitizer?

Pittsburgh AFL-CIO Opposes 1st Black Woman State Rep from Western PA for Re-Election Payday Report. She also opposes fracking, and supports the #GreenNewDeal.

Dragon’s Gate, by Vivian Bi

As I said the other day with my virtual launch of Dragon’s Gate this story set during the Cultural Revolution in China, turns out to be surprisingly relevant to the times we are now living in.  The central character finds consolation in books, and reading as consolation is helping many people now too.

Vivian Bi was a small child when the Cultural Revolution in China (1966-1976) began and her experience gives this novel impressive authenticity.  Many of us have heard stories of families suffering discrimination because of real or confected breaches of Mao’s determination to control thought in China: Vivian Bi experienced this herself because her father was denounced as a ‘Rightist’ (i.e. suspected of harbouring capitalist or traditional sympathies).