When the pandemic struck, I went to the woods. The world and its problems faded away, became a persistent rumor. Is it really out there? I’ve become a local. And more months will rush by, before the vaccines will downgrade the virus to just another infectious disease, that might kill me, and I can travel again.

Very little changes around here. Like the seasons, new things arrive in an orderly fashion and take their time, even the news. There is TV, of course, but I don’t watch it. There is no internet, but the government has promised fiber optics … that was two years ago: deadlines came and went. As I said, things take their time around here.
Little bits of information trickle in from the world outside, vague and amazing, like stories about the future. I have plenty of time to think about the messages it tells: the world is accelerating. Old ways are gone or leaving, and new ones are on the rise. And all because someone on the other side of the world wasn’t careful.

The proverbial wing of a butterfly has beaten, and changed our ways.

This is hard to ignore, even for the ignorant, although they try their worst. Some minds have moved a little, away from egoism towards responsibility, and make their decisions in a slightly different way. Well, ignorance rarely surrenders without a fight …

… but winter is coming.