Sunday - posted on Monday because I was running late last night.

This was written on Sunday.

Another excellent autumn day in Westchester. I mostly hung around the house doing the sort of minor chores that the fall requires.  We use window air conditioners in our very old house and by the end of the first week of October, it is time for them to come out of the windows and go into storage. That was the heavy lifting for the day. Then there are those fallen leaves I’ve mentioned before. It reaches a point where they are not only looking disheveled they are piling up and getting the way. So out comes the rake and the blower and it isn’t long after that they’ve been moved to the edge of the property for disposal. Such is the cycle of leaf if not also of life. The screens are out of the storm doors, replaced by the heavy duty windows that keep out the cold, though it hasn’t been that cold yet. This is what it’s like when I’m not going into the city on Sunday to meet friends and take pictures. This is the normal part of life during the pandemic.

It’s interesting and strange that  there are so many people who’ve swallowed the conspiracy theory that the pandemic isn’t real. I guess they don’t live in places where the hospitals were overflowing with patients, where people were dying too, too frequently from the illness. Some of these people can’t seem to wrap their brains around how harsh nature can be and how communal effort can help keep the illness at bay. The cult of the individual on its own doesn’t work. The individual is nested within a community, that community nests within a larger one,  and so on. Beginning in the community there are opportunities for cooperative effort that reduces overall risk, if the community can work together. A nation where it’s every person for themself is a recipe for anarchy. And it’s this attitude that seems to be part of what drives these conspiracies. What is ironic is that these same people, who say they have a right to do as they please, are keen on imposing their politics on the nation, as if nobody else has that same right. Sadly, they are so sure they know what’s right for everyone, and that nobody can tell them what’s right for them, that they don’t see how they are working to impose their contradictions on everyone who disagrees with them.

Intolerance is a two way street. I won’t pretend there are things I don’t want to tolerate, including having other people tell me what choice I can make for myself. Yet I’m not willing to become violent about it and I’m willing to mostly let other people determine what’s right for themselves as long as they aren’t doing harm to anybody else. And it is that last clause that so many unthinking libertarians stumble over. The attitude has become hardened that it doesn’t matter what the affect on others is.

These photos are part of a large project, Morgan Library bench. Summer 2013.

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