April 9

 Happy Easter to all who celebrate the holiday. We don't for a number of reasons. The commercialism which is second only to Christmas in the demands that we heroically buy things. We are really very tired of being the targets of sales pitches. Neither one of us define ourselves as Christian of any stripe and haven't for decades. And, finally, we don't have family (especially children) who look forward to the celebration.

We both celebrate the returning light and warmth. The winter, though not severe by any measure (not much snow, no extended freezing temps), was dreary. The sun always improves our moods.

MSNBC has a listing of the top 19 countries on the State Departments list of those Americans shouldn't travel in. None are a surprise because all have serious civil unrest, sometimes outright civil war, are engaged in war, or have a habit of kidnapping people for ransom of some kind. Or all at once. Not exactly places for peaceful vacation.

I read most of this article; it is a bit long. However, the essence can be distilled. During the COVID pandemic a key factor in fighting the virus was trust in government. Where that trust was lacking, the virus spread rapidly. In the absence of such trust building a local organization that people trust for information and for other supports (tests, vaccines, food, water, etc.). The article describes the situation in Brazil where the national president minimized the seriousness of the pandemic and provided minimal support for, especially, the poor people in the favelas. Where those local, grass-roots organizations did form and did provide accurate information and material support, the rates of infection were significantly lower than in areas where such organizations failed to develop. In this country, those populations which had the lowest trust in government agencies or who aped the attitude of The Former Guy had higher rates of disease and death. Right now I don't see much trust in once trusted institutions.

I just cleaned out a couple of the containers. I will need new lavender plants but I saw some growth in the container that I planted with asiatic lillies last year. No new growth on the rose and nothing yet in the indigo pot.