78 years ago today, on July 6, 1942 a young girl of 13 Anne Frank, along with her sister, parents and 4 others went into hiding. They were Jews during WW2 and desperate to avoid certain death from the Nazi’s.

In what was called The Annex which is located on The Prinsengrach in Amsterdam, Holland, the small rooms in which they were forced into hiding were located and hidden behind a bookcase where they lived for over 2 years. They were never allowed out, had to keep completely quiet during the day with only each other for company. The story is well known through the worldwide bestselling Diary of Anne Frank (a must read), one of the most honest and tragic recounts of life during this time.

I have always had a fascination with this story as my parents taught and lectured about the Holocaust for many years. As a descendant of multiple relatives that were killed by the Nazi’s it is a subject that is very close to my heart. In April of this year I had plans to visit the Anne Frank house, with tickets in hand. Due to the Covid pandemic those plans had to be put on hold.

Yesterday I was fortunate to find the Netflix Documentary, Anne Frank:Parallel Stories (a must watch). It tells the story of Anne while weaving in the stories of 5 other women who were Anne’s age but survived the camps. For those who may not know, In August of 1944 the Frank family was betrayed and captured. Anne and her sister Margot who had been transferred to Bergen-Belsen, died of typhus TWO WEEKS BEFORE LIBERATION. To think if only. If only. If only.

Watching the horrors of the Nazi cruelty and systematic extermination of the Jewish people will never, ever cease to make me question humanity. How can anyone understand this?

In the past two months racism has been at the forefront of news. It’s the only thing that has taken attention away from the pandemic. Imagine – we are already reeling from this virus that is killing thousand of people and the only other thing we can think about is racism, hatred and the need for change.

When you think of the cruelty of the police officers that killed George Floyd, Breonne Taylor, David McAtee and Ahmaud Arbery (among others), transfer that mentality into the hundreds of thousands of Nazi officers and followers that had no problem taking millions of lives. This is not a comparison of who had is worse, it is a statement of the limitless cruelty of humanity over the years. The racism that has plagued our world for centuries.

During the documentary, one of the survivors speaks of the two days in July 1942 when over 13,000 French Jews were captured and taken to The Velodrome D’Hiver (a sports arena) in Paris (she escaped). From Wikipedia:

“According to records of the Préfecture de Police, 13,152 Jews were arrested,^[1] including more than 4,000 children.^[2]They were held at the Vélodrome d’Hiver in extremely crowded conditions, almost without food and water and with no sanitary facilities, as well as at the Drancy, Pithiviers, and Beaune-la-Rolande internment camps,^[2] then shipped in rail cattle cars to Auschwitz for their mass murder“.

When one reads of this does it not give pause? This was just one small portion of the atrocities. Just one horrific act of racism. Think of all the others and wonder what has happened to humanity. Why did George Floyd have to beg for his life, only to lose it? Why did millions of Jews, Gypsies, Homosexuals and others have to be “exterminated” just because of who they were, what they believed? When and how will this madness ever end?

Anne Frank wrote a story of hope. She was wise beyond her years and most likely would have been all that she dreamed of had she survived. It’s so sad that only through her death was the world able to see and read her words. We will never know if she had survived if her diary would have been published.

I used to try to see the world through rose colored glasses. Those glasses have been greyed over time and now are turning black. Somehow I’d love to find hope again, hope for a better world, hope for an acceptance of each other, who we are and what we believe. And as my parents ended every lecture they gave, “may it never happen again”. Amen.

Let’s deal with life through poetry!  Since I was young, I would write a poem whenever I felt compelled. They usually come out in minutes and they are my reactions to instances that have occurred in my life or some event that moved me to write.  

There are poems from the past and current poems that continually flow. Pops of Poetry is written to show how life can be dealt with in a funny, thoughtful, and insightful way.  Using humor, sass, rhyme, and through glorious rhythms and words, I hope you will see that poetry is fun to read, sensitive and life changing. Exciting subjects include friends, relationships, break ups, marriage, kids, teaching, life in Chicago, daily grind, addictions, music, writing, death, surgeries, dreams, the future, hope and many more.   Check in daily to see what’s poppin’ in poetry!

So…my mom died in 2003 and I was still in a daze three years later.  I see now how you can’t just wait for things to happen, you have to move with it, seek the future, be flexible to change. This time after my mom died was quite somber.  I was always reflecting on life and what were my goals and dreams, because as they say, life is short.  I think going for dreams in life and seeing them fulfilled sounds quite fun. I have had dreams for a long time. Thus, too, this blog was created. If I waited any longer, not given it a shot, my dreams would lay static, dormant, never changing. Why not go for your dreams????

CHANGE

Take the time to live our life

For it may soon be gone

Take the time to ride the wave

That carries you along

Think happiness and kindness

And change along the way

Accept the change and take the wave

dealt to you each day~

August 28, 2006

Tired of all this lock down, social distancing stuff? Well why not play a virtual version of it instead? Fancy + Punk’s Coranavirus quarantine simulator (CQS) is just what it sounds like – a simulated world where you have to try to live your normal live while following all the quarantine rules: wear a mask, social distance, wash your hands, and for gods sake don’t touch your face!!

CQS has you doing everything you would do normally during the lockdown. You have to entertain and feed yourself while being safe at the same time. You can interact with items in your house like watching TV – and learning fun facts while your at it -, playing the radio, resting on the couch and thinking about things, and other things to keep you mental heath ok. You can also sleep if you want to.

One thing that is inevitable though is, ya gotta eat! And that means ya gotta go shopping! Grocery shopping is actually one of the main things you do in CQS. As you leave the house a list of food option pops up and shows you the ingredients you well need to make each item. So don’t think you can just live off chips and beer in this game! As you enter the store you can grab items off the shelves and drop them into a shopping cart or just bring them right to the register to buy.

Shopping is harder than you would think too. Not only do you have to find these crudely drawn items but you also have to practice social distancing and avoid going to close to people. If you are getting to close to a patron the screen will start flashing yellow and if you don’t get away in time then you will get hit with flashing red “you broke social distancing” and lose health. Also every so often your hand will start to go up towards your face and you have to quickly hit the button that is on the screen or lose more health for “touching your face.” You can also just waste time pulling things off shelves and slamming your cart into product displays, just saying.

When you get home you can cook but only if you have all the ingredients. But don’t forget to wash your hands first or that’s more health loss! Hand washing is another mini game simulator. There is a chart you can look at for this and the more steps you follow the mote points you get! You can ever hear your character humming “happy birthday” to ensure he is washing for the recommend 30 seconds.

Even though CQS is simple in concept, it’s not easy at all in practice not so much! In fact it’s HARD! It took my several tries to get through the grocery shopping people the patrons don’t seem to care about the “six feet apart” rule and you are constantly trying to touch your own face. Also to make it harder, when you return to the store sometimes items are in different locations making them harder to find when they are already hard due to the wonky graphics. Also it is very easy to forget little things like washing your hands and even just worrying about your mental health.

There is also a bit of a learning curve, especially if you are new to simulation games like this. It took me awhile to just figure out how to move my hands to wash them or even grab the shopping chart even with the button directions displayed on the screen. So don’t think this will be an easy walk in the park!

Why is CQS so hard? Why do I get penalized for little things like touching my face or not washing hands? But not only is CQS a game but it is also, basically, a PSA on how to be safe during the quarantine. In fact at the end of the game or when you lose, a checklist of all the things you lost points for pops up and explains why you lost points. Bottom line is Fancy + Punk found a way to really show you the benefits and penalties of following the rules without being pushy or preachy. If you don’t wash your hands before eating or touching things you could sick in the game and in real life. Same with touching your face and not staying away from people.

So Coranavirus quarantine simulator Is fun, quirky, silly at times, and hard as…well the real quarantine. But it might just teach you to be more safe. I give it 4 baby dragons outta 5.

It’s out now for Steam and for only $2.99! For more info check out Steam! Good luck and wear a mask!!!!

When I volunteered to give my first Chicago Greeter tour in four months, I didn’t know that I’d be taking out a Washington Post travel writer. After we met, she let me know that she was writing a story about the new normal of travel.

In between seeing Chicago’s first residential loft district and the murals on Wabash, she asked me questions. How did it feel to return to giving tours? How was it different from before? Did I feel safe? Would I volunteer for another tour soon?

The bottom line was assessing the risk. That seems to be a main topic in every conversation as Illinois waits in phase 4 for a coronavirus vaccine or an effective treatment.

Consider whether one needs to do it, not whether one wants to, was the advice in one article. The choice could be more nuanced, I think. If needing to do it were the basis for deciding, I’d be stuck in phase 1, going out only for groceries. Or maybe having them delivered, not going out at all.

A better criterion would seem to be whether one can get the risk down to one’s comfort level. Absolute safety cannot be guaranteed in life.

I’ve been willing to walk and eat outside with one or two friends; eat indoors with neighbors and relatives; take the “L” and the bus; use the treadmill in my building’s fitness center; get a haircut; donate blood; and go to a Juneteenth march and rally, staying on the fringes.

I haven’t yet eaten indoors at a restaurant; met with more than two friends at a time; or returned to volunteering for my church’s food ministry.

The out-of-town visitor asked me to dine with her and two of her friends. I wanted to but changed my mind. Eating with two people I didn’t know, and one I’d met just hours before, wasn’t worth the risk. An invitation from a friend I haven’t seen in months would be harder to turn down. So, there’s another criterion: how important is the activity to me?

I have friends who are more cautious than I am, unwilling to take public transportation or get together with anyone but family members. Some of them have underlying health conditions, and everyone has a different tolerance level.

But even for healthy folks, it’s not just our own risk that needs consideration. It’s other people’s. That is what the young people who are crowding into bars are forgetting — or are too selfish to care about.

“I don’t think it’s really fair to expect us, who are low risk, not to get together with other low-risk people,” a college student told a reporter investigating how college towns would keep the virus at bay when students return.

He was discounting that professors and campus staff aren’t necessarily low risk, and that students go home to see parents and older relatives. The student’s mother said that his behavior will prevent the family from visiting his grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins.

My main consideration has to be my 93-year-old mother. Outdoor visits were restored at her assisted living home a week ago. When I see her next Saturday, it will be outside, six feet apart, and masked. I feel satisfied that she’ll be safe.

For the foreseeable future, we’re going to be juggling — juggling the risk to ourselves, the risk to vulnerable others, and our human need to be with people. Applying the two criteria of how important the activity is to me, and whether the risk to myself and others can be reduced to a tolerable level, I probably won’t go to a movie theater or dine indoors soon. I’ll happily get together with friends outdoors.

After returning from that first Greeter tour, I signed up for another. Chicago Greeter later informed me that it would cancel the tour if the guest’s state remains on the list of states whose visitors Chicago is asking to quarantine for two weeks. It makes me feel good to have help with these risky decisions.

*****

ANTI-TRUMP COMMENTS: 121ST IN AN ONGOING SERIES

“We may not be fully on board with the Democratic agenda, but this is a one-issue election: Are you for Donald Trump, or are you for America?”
— Kristopher Purcell, 43 Alumni for Biden, a Republican anti-Trump organization