Psychologists say that uncertainty is one of the greatest stressors on mental health that we face in our lives. This certainly seems to be borne out with what we have all faced in this past pandemic year. And, although it is certain that we all will die some day, none of us knows when that day will come. But, if given the chance, would you want to know how much longer you have to live? In pondering this question, I have written this little short story.

With the Brood X cicadas now emerging in the mid-Atlantic east coast of the US, the Washington Post is sponsoring a poetry contest. Submitted poems about cicadas are to be less than 17 lines long. Here is my submission, written with the help of my wife:

Continuing my obsession with death, here is an essay I wrote after the trial of George Floyd’s murder.

Here is another of the little essays I’ve written while waiting for my turn to get vaccines here is Spain.

Here is a purely silly little piece. I wrote it in the spirit of Jonathan Swift or the television shows The Good Place or Good Omens and I hope no one takes it seriously.

Here is a little essay I wrote when thinking about this year’s eruption of the Brood X cicadas in the eastern United States, an event that happens every seventeen years. I’ve taken a few literary liberties here: my actual birthday is in April, and I think that was 18 or 19 years old in the first photograph.

Oh my goodness. I think that we are all happy to turn our backs on 2020 and start looking forward to regaining a new normal in 2021.

One bright spot in my retirement life here in the paradise that is Asturias, Spain, is that I have finally finished a draft of my Art and Archaeology in the American Funny Pages. It is now up on my homepage as a rather large .pdf download. I would love to receive any feedback!

I haven’t written any blogs or updated this WordPress website for some time.  I’ve now added an essay, “The Beginning of the End of the U. S. of A.?” and, under the Poems menu, some silly COVID-19 poems.

 

 

I have added a new section here on Art and Archaeology in Comics and have posted there my presentation of Pam’s collection.  Please feel free to download this and share it.

I have also posted on my blog site, murrayasturias.blogspot.com, a silly little business proposal.