My mother used to intone, upon witnessing some shocking (to her) thing or person or occurrence
"I thought I'd seen everything, now that takes the cake!"
Well, these days that we are experiencing, they certainly do 'take the cake.'
The word Corona has taken on a sinister new meaning; a word that frightens and, yes, perhaps, angers us.
No longer do we think of a Corona as merely an optical phenomenon produced by the diffraction of sunlight or moonlight by individual small water droplets and sometimes tiny ice crystals of a cloud or on a foggy glass surface.
And maybe we'll think twice before we order that Corona, with a wedge of lemon or lime, with our burritos, when we get to eat out again, that is.
For me, Corona was the next town over from Elmhurst, where I grew up. I waited every morning on Corona Avenue for the B58 bus, which took me to Flushing, where I got a transfer to another bus, that went to College Point, where I went to High School. Years later, a friend would tease me whenever we heard the Paul Simon hit "Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard" that included the line "Goodbye to Rosie, the Queen of Corona", with me protesting "I didn't live in Corona, I lived in Elmhurst!" That seemed a necessary distinction at the time.
All of these meaningless word associations run through my head as I listen to the disturbing and vivid stats of the Corona virus, day after day.
I wish us all well, and mourn for those who have succumbed to date. These are challenging times and we will get through them, and I hope we come out on the other side a bit wiser, more compassionate, more patient, more appreciative, more....something.
a foggy glass surface.
Comments