If I ran the zoo

Did you know that Shakespeare did some of his best work during a pandemic? And he even referenced it in his work. “A plague on both your houses” are Mercutio’s dying words in Romeo and Juliet.

Now, I am a totally ADHD person dealing with the challenges on self-imposed, government mandated (common sense) isolation. So, I am finally sitting down and finishing my play, “MAX TO THE MAX.” I’ve had staged readings with theatre companies in Vancouver, BC, and Santa Rosa, CA, gotten notes from friends I trust and I am at last sitting my ass down and finishing the thing.

Okay, maybe I’m not Shakespeare but I am going to give it my best shot.

Still, there is much more time in the day and I am spending a lot of that time driving around the beautiful back roads of the Pacific Northwest, along Bay View Road or up and down the Mount Baker Highway looking at lush farmlands surrounded by beautiful foothills and even a mountain or two.

I am driving with Fred, my older brother, who sadly died just before his 59th birthday. Fred was my hero from boyhood to manhood (a journey that’s still ongoing), and a tremendous inspiration to my siblings and me. He was president of his high school class, played Curley in “Oklahoma,” served in the Army, went to law school and prosecuted the bad guys in Florida.

He contracted some kind of onerous virus while in the tank corps in Texas, and fought it his whole life while raising two wonderful sons. His picture is scotch taped to my dashboard and, as I drive around, he is a constant reminder to me that we have to appreciate every minute and every hour and every day we have on this planet.

Yes, it is not all a bed of roses. Sometimes it is guns and roses, sometimes it is a pandemic that came out of nowhere and is killing innocent people who did nothing more than inhale at the wrong time and place or touch an infected surface before touching their face.

As of now, there is no vaccination for this disease. Inspired by the Plague, the Bard wrote: “The miserable have no other medicine, but only hope.”

Yes, hope and prayer are important but I think we can be more proactive than that. Our challenge is to make the best out of a terrible situation, definitely the worst in my lifetime. Yes, I lost friends and classmates in the Vietnam War but that did not have the worldwide reverberations of COVID-19.

My advice to all of you is to keep your distance while you’re in your house, but also get out of the house as much as possible, weather and location permitting. We are blessed to live in a very beautiful place with good air and so many beautiful hiking trails. This is a very healthy version of isolationism.

Explore new places. Meditate. Talk to God if you’re religious. Or write a play!