Over half way through November,  already. There are still a few  leaves on the trees.  The amber-colored leaves are a beautiful contrast to the sharp blue sky.  It is as if the fall is suspended, a leaf  held by a thread of spider silk.

Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have been declared the new President and Vice-President.  The incumbent, Donald Trump,  has not conceded yet.

In the meantime, the virus  is increasing exponentially,  and more people are dying every day.  Yes,  there is encouraging news of vaccines.

I think of so many Star Trek episodes, where a plague-ridden planet awaited the delivery of a vaccine.  But 2020 is not science fiction, although there have been dystopian comparisons to 1984 and The Handmaid’s Tale and the Hunger Games.

Maybe history offers a better perspective–Nero fiddling while Rome burns?

Or a  Shakespeare soliloquy before the would-be tyrant exits the stage?

We are in a climate emergency. They’ve run out of names for hurricanes this season. The latest one, Iota, is the strongest Atlantic hurricane this year. Iota is projected to make landfall as a Category 5 storm, in almost the same location as Hurricane Eta, just a few days ago.

It’s been a windy November in Chicago, too.  I remember  the winds of November and the storms on the Great Lakes–the Edmund Fitzgerald, the iron ore ship, sunk under an iron-gray sky. You can read more about the Edmund Fitzgerald and the winds of November here.

But  today, clouds and blue sky, a wind that frees.  The bare trees are a reminder that change is the nature of things.

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