2017 Life Logs, Day 291: The Times They Are A’Changin
Date: Wednesday, October 18, 2017
Weather: Lovely Fall Day; High 68, Low 53 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Studio, Falmouth, MA
Today I thought of Bob Dylan’s song, The Times They Are A’Changing, more than once. First it happened when I went to the post office to send two more packages to Justin and Jo. The postman on duty was not the one that is usually there and he casually asked what I was sending to Puerto Rico that was so heavy. I explained that it was books for home schooling. Then one of the postmen who is usually there came out from the back room. Somehow, they got into a fury bashing President Trump’s handling of the fallen soldiers in Niger. They used language I never thought I’d hear coming from a postman. And all I could think is . . . the times, they must be changing. What has happened to make a public employee feel that he can express his feelings like this to a customer he has never met? I just stood wide-eyed and then left. I actually agreed with what was being said, but I would never express that to people I had never met before. Something is happening in this country.
The second time today that I thought of the words in Dylan’s song was when I communicated with Justin. In the late afternoon I heard a ding on my computer that I knew was Justin on Skype messaging. I ran from the kitchen to my computer and read his message. We were able to message back and forth long enough for me to understand that there has been a change in what is happening there. Justin expressed it by saying they no longer need water purification tablets (although they really do in the short run). Rather, they need concrete cisterns and industrial grade water filters. This led me to understand that he, and everyone else there is realizing that their situation is not temporary. They are now fully realizing that they are going to have to live without any modern conveniences for a very long time. The words stating that have been said since Maria hit, but true realization is different. Mark and I reared our children to believe that anything is possible and I know Justin believes that. But I could tell today that he is tired. Things are too hard. Everything takes too long. A two-minute phone call takes 40 minutes because the call is dropped so many times. But I hope he can take a deep breath and regain his momentum. As any mother would do, I will do everything in my power to help. I just wish I had Mark here to help me. He would be able to figure out what kind of solar system Justin needs to run a refrigerator and a satellite dish for internet. And he would know how to figure out what satellite internet system he needs and how the solar system and satellite equipment would interface. But I don’t have Mark, so I need to figure all of this out on my own and very quickly.
