April 13, 2021
This morning, a friend posted the following observation on Facebook: "Day 42. Still no socialism. No one has come for your guns. Planned Parenthood is not located in Starbucks. And we still have cops." I offered the following to temper her apparent optimism that those in the grips of these fears might cease and desist anytime soon:
Back
in 1888, a schoolboy from rural Kentucky realized that the digits of
that year, taken as a mathematical sum, added up to 25, and that 25 is
the square of 5 (i.e., 5 x 5). Having stared at the sun a bit too long,
he saw a numerological significance in this, and let it be known to
anyone who would listen that going forward, important milestones would
come in, after, around, because of, etc. etc. multiples or sums of 5.
The prophecy caught on with a few of his neighbors, who had also been
staring at the sun a bit too long, and they in turn spread it to friends
and family members, until a sort of cabal calling itself the Rule of
Fivers coalesced. Nothing was heard of this cabal after New Years Day
1889, until early this year, when rumors started circulating at the
fringes of the dark web that the Rule of Fivers cabal had been
resuscitated, though some claimed it had never fully died, but had
instead become a secret subgroup of another secret group, which they
refused to name because it was secret (duh!). According to this
rebooted—or re-emergent—Rule of Fiver prophecy, now referred to as
R5, since the digits of the year 2021 add up to 5 (2 + 0 + 2 + 1),
important milestones could happen at any time during the year. It's
felt that they're more likely to occur on days mathematically related to
5, though, viz. any multiple of 5 (20, 45, 165, etc.) or any day whose
digits add up to 5 (e.g., day 131 of the year, May 11th). Some extend
the principle to the hours of a given day, e.g., the 5th or 10th hour
of, say, day 42 of the Biden presidency. Due to the influence of QAnon,
the R5 faithful are now reportedly anticipating Donald Trump's
reinstatement in the White House at some TBD date or time of day tied in
some way to the number 5, which is to say, any time you could name.
They also reportedly look forward to mass executions of libs,
pedophiles, etc. (in groups of 5, 10, etc.), and five-for-one sales of
AR-15s in Hobby Lobbies across the nation. Stay tuned...
April 9, 2021
I was just reflecting that it's been over a year since I've been to a restaurant. On a beautiful early spring night like tonight, I would in the past have likely gone out somewhere, even by myself, just to be around others. After a week when I've been on edge a lot, struggling with the ongoing isolation of the pandemic, a couple of emotionally challenging creative projects, and the usual toxic crush of the news cycle, eating Thai food at a sidewalk table in Regent Square sounds like the perfect balm. But I'm still waiting to get vaccinated—PA Phase 2 starts the week after next, and I've scheduled my first shot for the 26th—so I'm left reminding myself to breathe, and to bear in mind that all dark periods end in light sooner or later.
April 7, 2021
I walked in my old neighborhood this afternoon, and stopped to talk with an older gent whom I'd known to say hello to. In the course of the conversation, he misgendered me. Gender had never come up in our prior conversations, so it took me by surprise. I corrected him; I'm not sure if he heard me. This rarely happens to me these days, but each time it does, the world feels lonelier and less safe.
