If Germs Were Bullets You’d Stay the Fuck Home
Not all danger is militarized
Yes, I being
the terrible puppet of my dreams, shall
lavish this on you —
the dense mine of the orchid, split in two.
…
And what about the staunch neighbor tabulations,
with all their zest for doom?
— The Visible, The Untrue
Hart Crane, 1933
During the many bombing raids over the munitions plant in Pozzuoli, beloved actress Sophia Loren was just a child when she was wounded and permanently scarred by shrapnel. She survived that and she survived World War II.
When her mother fled with her and her sister to Naples do you think she was concerned about their age-appropriate social and emotional development? Loren couldn’t have been more than 10 years old. Her mother’s job was to keep them alive. Not to worry about their grades, extracurricular activities, or whether or not they were making new friends.
If boredom and inertia are the greatest ills afflicting you during this quarantine, please consider yourself infinitely blessed. And please also consider the possibility that perhaps you haven’t taken enough deep dives into your psyche or the…
