Does anybody really know what time it is?...

does anybody really care?....and so we approach the end of 2021...or as I now refer to it as 2020 2.0...here we are again...omicron is rampaging...you can't get a testing appointment...a home kit...well, you can...but you'll wait...pay mark-up...if you were negative when you get on line, you'll be positive by the time you hear "next"...I think all of this is kind of like groundhog's day...the angst replays over and over...and the stupidity too...and it makes the concept of time very elusive...it still seems to slip through your fingers...but what have you done...because this is like fire...which needs oxygen to burn...and covid's oxygen is a host...to infect and mutate going forward...and that leads to vaccination...not just here, but in countries you might never have heard of...and the line between the haves and have nots...the inequality of this world might just kill us...and so I look to my salvation...the arts...and all those who are pushing back...still creating...giving us novels...streaming...music...movies...art...and I want to be wowed...because I need to be wowed...want to love a new movie...not based on a critic who heaps praises on it for its credentials, not substance...but this year that has not happened...so far this year I have only found that "wow" in one book...and two performances...the book is "Matrix" the latest from the immensely talented Lauren Groff...for the few days it took me to read, I was taken away from the relentless horrible news cycle here...and transported to an abbey in the time of Eleanor of Aquitaine...and taken to other terrible times...but also times of great redemption and heroism...and then last week...watching the segment on Joni Mitchell at the Kennedy Center Honors...Brandi Carlisle singing "River"...Brittany Howard singing "Both Sides Now"...google and watch...then google and listen to Joni in her prime...close your eyes...ignore breaking news on your cell...skate away on that river with Joni...breathe deep...glide into 2022 with time on your side, and hope in your grasp...