Stayin’ Alive. Stayin’ Alive. Ah, Ah, Ah. Staaayin’ Alive

Crowds. 

Let’s talk crowds, shall we? It seems apparent that some of you don’t understand how distance and crowds work? So I’m here to help...settle right in, I have a boatload to say. 

Let me set the record straight....groups of ten or more are a crowd. Standing in a space where there are ten or more people huddled together is a crowded place. 

Make sense? Still confused....no worries...I will go on...by the end of this...maybe you’ll finally reach the ‘a-ha’ moment....because I’ve had it with being put in time out. BECAUSE SOME OF YOU STILL CAN’T FOLLOW INSTRUCTIONS.

We’ll see though, we will see. 

Imma break this down in the simplest way I can...if you still don’t get it after this, there is no hope for you, natural selection will pluck you out soon enough. Not my chair, not my problem. I’m washing my hands (for 20 seconds in hot water) of it all. 

CHURCHES: 

Some of you are appalled that a church is considered a non-essential place. Well, get over it because IT isn’t ESSENTIAL. It’s a choice...a place to gather...and what does gather mean? 

Gather: verb (used with object)

to bring together into one group, collection, or place. 

I am in NO WAY, SHAPE OR FORM disrespecting religion. In fact, I think it’s extremely beautiful. It’s man who has made it ugly. Man has turned it into what it is today: a way to manipulate and turn a profit...and that Godly does not make. I grew up going to church. Not all the time and not all the same church but I went enough times to count as being a church goer of sorts. 

My mother grew up in a religion that can best be described as a cross between the Jewish faith and Seventh Day Adventist. My father was raised Greek Orthodox. I went to both and in both I was told I was going to hell for everything from being a girl to eating certain meats. 

Around 16...if not earlier, I found solace in Paganism or what I call Earth Bound Spirituality. Paganism is one of the oldest “religions” out there and it’s the closest thing I have ever felt to God. No, I don’t sacrifice small animals or eat children....but I do honor seasonal changes, nature, the moon, and my fellow man....just to name a few. I also partake in rituals....mostly incantations I have created or at least thoroughly researched. 

I also took a religions course in college at a religious university. Not because I chose this school but because it was the university closest to where I lived with the program that I wanted to attend. Pagans can believe in a higher power too and a degree is a degree, no matter where the paper comes from. 

To this day, this class is still one of the relevant and reflective classes I have ever taken. Not only was it taught by a pastor but I learned more about the Bible, God, Jesus, scriptures, religion in general in this one semester then I ever did going to church on Sundays throughout my adolescence. 

I do believe in heaven and hell, reincarnation, ghosts, and the Bible being a loosely based historically reference. I also believe a God comes in many faces and Christianity isn’t superior over any of these other forms, faiths or belief systems. 

Seven things...

 1) Jesus may have “sacrificed himself for your sins,” I guess? But, in actuality...the cross he was thrown on was in fact, the way Romans killed their enemies. All their enemies. Not just Jesus. Many a man before and after Jesus had been strapped to a cross and left to rot in the sun for all the towns people to see. A true sacrifice to instill fear among a community. So you could say that those who died just as Jesus did...on a cross...in a sacrificial manner are Jesus too. 

Where’s their book? 

All I’m saying is I feel bad for the guys named Preceded and Post Hoc. I’m sure they led intriguing lives as well....but we’ll never know now will we? 

Jesus was an enemy to the Romans and the whole Book of Revelations talks about this, contrary most interpretations being about the end of the world. 

Jesus was a rebel...you could even call him an anarchist. He saw his faith being destroyed by wealthy men...who again wanted to use religion to manipulate and gain power. He saw his people being deprived of inalienable rights all in the name of a ruler. He saw that the powers-that-be were an exclusive squad that  shunned its weak, its sick, its tired, and its poor. He saw faith being used as a bank roll. 

And he spoke out about these injustices. 

Many, many times. 

He ran through the city’s temple...giving speeches encouraging the people to revolt. He caused chaos and destruction and pissed off all the important guys! Every time, be chased down and away by guards who were prepared to capture his ass at any given moment....if they could, of course. 

Apparently Jesus was a fast runner because he escaped quite frequently...except for that one time. 

The fear of getting caught never stopped him either...he was determined to shine a light on all the corruption being done. 

So you can see how the Romans particularly took notice to this kind of disobedience and wanted to stop it before it caught on. 

It’s the same fear many leaders to this day have....that the oppressed will overthrow the oppressor. 

Enter his death and the end of the Bible. Story over, shared among millions. The Bible, by the way, being written by a select few that could actually at the time both  read and write....hundreds of years later. 

2) Most holidays and some saints come from pagan traditions. Saint Brigid is a prime example. She is also a woman near and dear to my heart. This deity was so well loved that when Christianity took over people refused to convert unless this deity crossed over with them. Christian rulers allowed it and she is still honored every January when the seasons have equal days between winter and spring. 

Easter is based on Ostara-the first day of of actual spring. The rising and creation of new things-represented by rebirth, the lamb, the bunny and the sun coming up from its long winter slumber. 

Christmas was taken from Winter Solstice or Yule: the birth of darkness, cold and celebrations for final harvests. To make it less paganish enter Christmas and the birth of Christ. 

We kept Brigid. Christians jacked up Yule and turned it into a birthday party. Eh, you win some....you lose some. 

 3) Mary Magdalene was not a whore but given that this book was written by men...highly intelligent, aristocratic men...and Christianity was created to abolish honoring many Gods (many of them women, by the way) it’s no surprise that most biblical females are subjected to inferior status. 

One’s a whore, another is an unruly housewife, and that one over there is a slave. 

See where I’m going with this? 

If the Bible was the Internet....well then...you can’t believe everything you read. 

 4) Ole Jesus wasn’t a pale white dude nor did he look like a hippy at a Phish concert. 

“For the love of all things...does this guitar solo have to be twenty fucking minutes long,” asked me every single time a jam band plays longer than they should...doing the same riff over and over and over again.

The picture you all have grown accustomed to is based a Pope’s son..the Italian Prince of Peace or Cesare Borgia. Yup, you read that correctly a) Popes has sex and children back then and Jesus looked like one of them. The resemblance uncanny...the religion, Catholicism. 

Given geographical location...Jesus would have mostly like been Jewish. He also would have had darker features-seeing how he a) worked in the sun and b)lived in a desert climate off the Mediterranean Sea...next to Africa! Even I who might have green eyes gets dark AF when I sit in the sun. I am Greek...we have dark features. I am Mediterranean-we have dark features. My roots come from a place close to the equator-we have dark features!!!! Now go further south and to the right and you have Jesus and his homeland. A place where white, pasty dudes weren’t common. 

5) Miracles or Magic or Folklore? So you are going to tell me that we as a human race were created by one man’s rib? That we weren’t created by animals fucking each other and the evolution of time? 

Have you ever seen Ron Perlman? He is the essence of evolution. 

And you are really going to sit there and tell me that a man can walk on water and turn water into wine, and a woman “Poof! With Child” without at all touching the penis of her husband....Just The Tip...without any hesitation or critical thinking skills about these stories being slightly altered or fabricated? I, for one, can’t help but see a few cracks in this “fortified” tale. 

*fun fact about me: 

In my late 20’s, I traveled to Ephesus, Turkey. A place which according to many traditions and multiple faiths, was where the Virgin Mary lived out her final days. The energy there was magnetic and in all honesty, indescribable. It was a feeling, an emotion, a wave of welcome intensity. 

I have felt this feeling three times before and two of those  involved churches: St. Jacob's Church (St. Jakobskirche) in Rothenburg ob der Tauber, Germany and St. Jakob’s in Nürnberg, Germany. The city where I was born. The city I didn’t revisit until I was 39. Both are also connected to the Camino de Santiago...a ‘pilgrimage’ I hope to take one day. Seeing the scallop shells flooded me with all the feels...and discovering that part of this path was connected to my birthplace cleared up so many things about myself and my desire to travel and explore...it’s in my German blood and it all makes sense now. 

The third spot is Strawberry Fields in New York City’s Central Park. The memorial site to Beatles member, John Lennon. The hotel where he was shot and killed is right across from this portion of the park. 

One day...that’s if we ever get there...I hope to revisit each and every one of these spots. 

I also hope to call Nürnberg home once more. Finger’s crossed. I’m going make this happen. 

Enough tidbits about me back to the blog at hand....

6) This one book has been changed, turned into other editions, and rewritten to accommodate the masses. For instance, musical instruments weren’t allowed. Now they assist millions with hymns. Pork and shell fish were originally considered unclean. Ham is a popular menu item on Christmas Day dinner table across the globe. The supposed “birthday” of our lord and savior, Jesus Christ. 

Notice a pattern of religion evolving to meet our needs? 

 7) No higher power of any form is going to punish you for missing church in the name of saving other people. A church is a building. Jesus from what I hear, would want you to put other humans before yourself! Meaning, if you want a religious service...what’s stopping you? You don’t need a designated day or building to get you close to God or whatever higher power you believe in! A crowd is a crowd is a crowd and this virus doesn’t care that you want to go to church. Church is a place, your faith is an action and if this is preventing you from getting down with the Holy Spirit, you’re not that committed anyway. You just want something to gripe about and right now, our plates are full....and I’m not talking a collection plate jingling down the pews full, I’m talking-PEOPLE ARE FUCKING DYING. 

Get your Bible out, pick any chair your home and go to town! 

Not to mention, most A.M stations or the 80’s on your F.M dials, air religious programming. Most basic cable T.V channels and I mean bare bones of channel selection show early morning services and if you can’t make that, stay up late enough and you’ll see sermons galore. 

And if you have neither of those and you rely solely on the internet...You Tube works like a charm. I celebrated Orthodox Easter in Greece once...from the comfort of my couch....in the states...and look I wasn’t set on fire and sent to hell. I’m still here. 

What I am saying is...take your pick, you have options. The place and time shouldn’t be stopping you. So please stop with the whining and the, “Why isn’t this essential BS.” 

Feel privileged and grateful enough that you can at least celebrate your spirituality freely because for many of us we’ve have to hide or even die for our faiths. 

MOVING ONTO TO NATURE AND THE GREAT OUTDOORS: 

I live in a state where we pride ourselves on outdoor activities. When it snows, we snowshoe, snowtube, ski, snowboard, ice fish, and ice skate....some even take their cars and race on solid ice lakes! 

Personally, I think this is the dumbest idea ever and you won’t catch me doing it...but hey...I’m at a point now where I’m just

going to assume people dying because of their own stupidity is natural selection taking over. 

Kinda how I feel about all of you who refuse to stay put because you need that hike and fresh air. Open a fucking window. Walk outside in your yard. Take a walk in your neighborhood....if you really have to. The only time you should be traveling anywhere though is to go to the store. 

Sure, I wanna hike the trails like the rest of them. I have about twenty within a few miles of my home but you and I times everyone else who has the same idea, makes a fucking crowd....and I don’t care how far apart you think you are from someone else. Trails get packed, spaces get tight. Now, not only are we dodging each other, but we’re trying not to run into leashed and loose pups or step on those cute little multi-colored poop bags left behind by irresponsible dog owners. FYI: clean it up!!! The poop bags don’t add to the scenery and if you can’t clean up after your pet...you shouldn’t have a pet!!! Would you want someone to come into your home, squat down and shit on your floor...then wrap it up in a neon bag and leave it there? No? That’s what I thought. 

The longer we look at the “outdoors as a place our final freedoms roam” the longer we’ll be cooped up in our homes and won’t have freedoms at all. 

Reiterating why we, as a human population, can’t have nice things. 

I’m tired of the self-entitlement and complete disregard. I’m tired of being punished because some of you assholes can’t figure out how to get creative. I’m exhausted from worrying about how long this will last or whether or not it will end. I’m scared shitless that in my country the only thing that we keep people home is martial law....because that’s the envelope that’s getting pushed. And you’ll be the first ones to complain about your rights being taken away, when you didn’t respect your rights to begin with. 

You know...I grew up without a curfew and I didn’t do anything to dishonor that freedom. I didn’t give my mom any reason to take it away. And this feels like that...I respect that I can go on adventures and explore and do things that aren’t inside the walls of my house and I hope to continue these hobbies and habits...but not right now. Hopefully, later but not right now. 

Maybe I was just born with better patience  and that’s saying a shit ton because I’m one of the most impatient assholes I know. I’m not rude about it but internally my mind is dying from the waiting game. Screaming obscenities at every slow poke situation laid before me. So I get it. I empathize with your plight but that fact remains, this isn’t just about you or me. 

This sucks for everyone! 

I’m sure given anyone’s choice, being quarantined wouldn’t be it. People all of the world would prefer to be out and about over sheltering-in-fucking-place! 

Some of us have also been doing this since the beginning of March, close to the end of February. Life in my state started getting weird right around mid February...that’s when I noticed the tp aisle losing all its products. I’m just now seeing states doing full shut down orders...in April!! 

And in all areas, I’m still seeing people everywhere. It’s not as many but there is a blatant disregard for the severity of what’s happening. My city and states wants to combat the problem. I’m going on week four this weekend but it does us no good if every state isn’t on board. 

Was your spring break, your Marco Gras, your trip somewhere cool really worth it? 

You’re making an active choice to roam freely as you choose and you are the reason people are dying! 

Congratulations...you now have blood on your hands. 

I have doctor and nurse friends desperately working around the clock with limited supplies trying their damndest to save lives and keep themselves healthy at the same time. Numbers rising every single damn day. Do you not get that? Can you not...for one second...care about someone other than yourself? 

Do you really believe this isn’t a real and dangerous virus and that the whole world is in on a giant staged routine? 

Covid-19 is here and there’s nothing we can do about that...but we can stop it or at least slow it so down that it all but disappears. 

Worldwide, we’ve hit the 1 million follower mark. Does this mean Corona V gets verified?  

And fuck’s sake...do we have to take out the whole world’s population because we can’t put our fucking listening ears on? 

It’s bad enough we have to go to the store but at least there you have a staff constantly cleaning and wiping down every nook and cranny. You have employees wearing masks and gloves and are slightly protected with shield guards at check out stands. I trust this space more so than any trail or popular outdoor spot right now...because, let’s face it, I don’t trust the cleanliness of the masses. I mean, you all needed celebrities to tell you how to wash your dirty, grubby little fingers. 

I’m simpler terms...every time you go to the beach, on a hike, a walk through town, go out to exercise in a park or take pictures of the barren streets...twenty plus other people are doing the same damn thing....and eventually someone needs to start making the wiser more adult decisions and stay their fucking asses at home. 

 Until then you and them have just now said....

“Fuck You elderly. Fuck You children and babies. Fuck You everyone out of work. Fuck You anyone with a compromised immune systems. Fuck You police, medical staff, and city maintenance workers. Fuck You grocery store clerks and those that are staying inside. Fuck everyone except me.” 

Your self importance is astounding. Not surprising, just dumbfounding. 

And you may say...but what about liquor stores, dispensaries, clinics, etc...any other place you want to use as an excuse not to take responsibility for your own actions...to which I respond. Fucking crowd control and as a whole these businesses see way less visitors than any trail or church service does at one time. 

But since you mentioned it, let’s talk essential businesses. 

Specifically, Liquor Stores. 

I’m not going to disrespect anyone’s discord when it comes to alcohol. That’s your opinion and it’s fine. However, Most states in the U.S sell at least beer in a grocery store. Some states sell all the alcohol in a grocery store but mostly  every state and most cities have a liquor stores ‘right around the corner.’ 

I once lived in a town that didn’t even have a grocery store but it did have a liquor  store. Food clearly lost the battle of importance. No matter, I was patron. I used to get Cider Beer there. I would have preferred a grocery story over the liquor store but whatever...that’s what happens when you live in the woods in the middle of nowhere. You take what you can get, when you can get it. 

Also...this is a pandemic not prohibition and the adult nectar is most definitely essential in order to calm some of us the fuck down. Me, included. 

I don’t drink every day but I do at least once a week and that’s the same number of times I go to the grocery store. Since March 5th: every meal has been made at home and eaten at home and with shelves running low on most items there is no way around not going at least once weekly. You grab what you can hoping that by the week whatever you’ll finally have collected all ingredients needed to complete one meal. Noodles this week, hamburger meat next week, ah...sauce I found you. 

Furthermore, when was the last time you saw more than five people in a liquor store anywhere? With the exception of holidays, major storms like hurricanes or in my case blizzards, and football season. 

Speaking of football....why is it called football when most of the time it’s played using your hands and not your feet? 🤷🏻‍♀️

Other than that, most liquor stores are relatively quiet places. 

I usually get beer from the grocery store, along with actual groceries. Yes, BCV (before CoronaVirus) I would sometimes just go around the corner and get beer, as well as some quick dinner for my husband and I. A weekend treat but during CV, not once. The last time I went to any actual liquor store was the day my state’s mandatory stay-at-home order went into effect. 

The beer selection at my local grocers suffices. It may not be the biggest selection but it does the job and I’m not that needy nor picky. I just like decent beer and my grocery store carries decent beer. It’s also home to bananas, milk, bread, etc...one stop shop and go. 

Now is no time to be perusing around looking for that specific brand to have that specific drink. The selection of beer at my grocery store is the one I am picking from. None of this, I need something better...or different. 

Again...this is about other people over myself...the less I’m out...the less I have a chance to get tapped on the shoulder by the grim reaper. The least amount of places I go to the less of a chance I have to pass anything onto my husband. 

Besides, I’d like to see my mother again one day and extra trips anywhere is delaying that ten fold. Somethings are more important than others. 

Most importantly though, and this is the unfortunate yet harsh reality of liquor stores being considered essential: addiction. Those that aren’t in recovery are still very much alcoholics. Our hospitals are full of sick people in general now amplify that with Covid patients and multiple that by addicts shocking their systems from not drinking and you have a shitty no/win situation. 

Another important factor. Survival for certain battered individuals. 

One of the hats I used to wear was being advocate and admin assistant for a domestic abuse shelter. More times than not a woman was sent to the shelter or called the crisis line because of an alcoholic abusive partner. Taking away the alcohol puts these women (and some men) at a higher risk of getting beat down more than just letting their partners drink themselves into a stupor. It sucks and it’s terrible but unfortunately, it’s true. 

Liquor stores being branded essential has nothing to do with a society lacking morals or giving into a bunch of godless heathens. It’s so much more than just a wild quarantine party for one! It’s complex and not one sided. None of this is. It’s a means to solve a hella amount of issues that can and will potentially rise. 

If you or someone you know, brings up the ‘Great Alcohol Debate of 2020’...read this over or pass this along to them. Hell, if you get any debates concerning any of these topics...my post is for you to share. Please, share away. 

As for you reading this right now maybe you already knew these things and were just looking for a comrade seeing eye to eye. To assure you, you aren’t crazy and there’s someone who thinks like you. What I write, you like and I appreciate that. 

Hopefully, in the near future I can speaking bluntly about other subjects other than this topic at hand. 

If you are new and made it this far down this rabbit hole, then I kept you interested and that’s fantastic too. The Covid sure has whipped my ass into a writing frenzy. 

Then again, I have oodles of time to kill. 

Stay tuned...more posts to come and feel free to visit other posts I wrote as well.  

I’ll leave you with this two excerpts from two of my favorite writers and books of all time. I have many but these two are definitely in the top ten...and since we’re speaking crowds, essentials, and irritations, these seem to fit...until next time and enjoy. 

P.S while you are in quarantine...I suggest peeping out these fabulous pieces of literature...if you haven’t already. 

“Mr. Brown had thought of nothing but numbers. He should have known that the kingdom of God did not depend on large crowds. Our Lord Himself stressed the importance of fewness. Narrow is the way and few the number. To fill the Lord's holy temple with an idolatrous crowd clamoring for signs was a folly of everlasting consequence. Our Lord used the whip only once in His life - to drive the crowd away from His church.”

Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart. 

“As a recluse I couldn't bear traffic. It had nothing to do with jealousy, I simply disliked people, crowds, anywhere, except at my readings. People diminished me, they sucked me dry.” 

Charles Bukowski, Women.