Family time

"Family Time," 5 x 7 watercolor

Amid the doom and gloom of pandemic, and somber memories of  25 years ago, let us be reminded of more.
April 19 is also a day to celebrate Americans' courage, April 19, 1775, standing up against tyranny
There is more. My walk in Hafer Park today was cool and relatively unpopulated after the rain.
But not yesterday. The sun was shining and families were active in the gentle southerly breeze.
There's a green "sward"--I love that seldom used word--in the middle of the park trail, and four families were out, all respectful distances from each other. And in the middle, one little boy was flying a kite, dad standing nearby.
That normalcy of spring  and family time just lifts your spirit. Remember when?
Thus this little watercolor.

A quarter century ago, and today

"Oklahoma's Blood," 8 x 10 watercolor

I don't want to write anything trite, or unnecessary today, the 25th anniversary of the murderous Oklahoma City bombing.
Much has been written, and more will, by people far more affected than I was, and am--I don't wish to detract from those stories and emotions.
I can recount where I was, what I did, as everyone can who remembers that day, so I've written in my private pandemic journal today, but it seems insignificant  in contrast to those who suffered.
I have one perspective to share as a journalist and Oklahoman. I was working part time at The Oklahoman then as a copy editor, at night, so I was witness to the people who covered that event and the followup. 
The role of that newspaper and its staff was critical in holding and pulling the community, the entire state, through the horror. Every morning, it was a much-needed symbol, a voice, of and for the people,  an assurance that there was still goodness and hope and normality. There was no more room for hatred.
That seems appropriate these days of pandemic, when Americans so need to know there is hope, and goodness and normality. Discounting and bashing news sources covering this current disaster only spreads a virus of hatred when we least need it.
To me, that is one of the lessons from a quarter century ago.
Instead of more words, when words won't work, here's today's watercolor from my emotions.

The Angsts and Poets of April

"April," 5 x 7 watercolor, 140 lb. Fabriano Artistico cold press paper

How do you paint April?
Clouds or sunshine? Birth or death? Hope or despair? Beauty or beast?
There's the beauty of flowers and rain, and the terror of tornadoes. There was the birth of our Revolution, and the brutality of the OKC bombing. April is no fool
If you look for poets for advice, you find all those opposites, but more negative than positive.
This year, we're relieved to get through March, but face a longer April as the pandemic wreaks and wrecks havoc with every aspect of our lives all over the world.
Somebody suggested we keep journals of this disaster, for both our own mental health but also for future generations. I guess this blog and paintings approach that, though I'm more interested in bringing some color into these dark months, and recording facts. 
But such diaries are important, especially as we have no idea how long or really catastrophic this plague is going to be. 
Consider Samuel Pepys' 1665-1666 diary of the black death pandemic in London--it provides both the human and historical record that killed about 100,000 people in 18 months, a quarter of London's people. 
In our April, where there will be more deaths, more tragedies, back to the poets, who show us not much has changed over the years.
The first who came to my mind was T.S. Eliot, and particularly bleak, in The Waste Land:

   "April is the cruelest month, breeding

    Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing

    Memory and desire, stirring

    Dull roots with spring rain."

Offset that with Shakespeare please:

   "April, dressed in all its trim, hath put a spirit of youth in everything."

But then there's Charles Lamb:"Here cometh April again, and as far as I can see the world hath more fools in it than ever—"

Go way back to 1367 to Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, first in Middle English:

"Whan that Aprill, with his shoures soote The droghte of March hath perced to the roote And bathed every veyne in swich licour, Of which vertu engendred is the flour;" Translation:  "When in April the sweet showers fall that pierce March's drought to the root and all, And bathed very vein in liquor that has power To generate therein and sire the flower." Edna St. Vincent Millay was somewhat more cynical, in two poems: "April this year, not otherwise Than April of a year ago Is full of whispers, full of sighs,..." "Life in itself Is nothing, An empty cup, a flight of uncarpeted stairs. It is not enough that yearly, down this hill, April Comes like an idiot, babbling and strewing flowers.” Though not a poet, George Orwell wrote a line in 1984 that really seems to fit the insanity of our current crisis: "It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen." The Angst of April indeed. I'll take clouds and colors thank you.

The bounty of April

A woodcut showing April's bounty from William Caxton's second edition of the Canterbury Tales in 1483. "WHAN that Aprille with his shoures soote The droghte of Marche hath perced to the roote, And bathed every veyne in swich licour,..." The opening lines of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, surely written in a spring about 800 years ago in the late 1300s, could well describe Oklahoma as another month ends. The skies outside are humid, filled with shifting clouds dripping moisture. The drought of the previous year is over in all but the southeast of the state, and rains of the last two days and nights have only added to the greenery of spring with h most rainfall in four years. April has been the fourth month on the Roman calendar at least since 700 years before Christ, getting its name from the Latin aperie for "opening," referring to the opening of leaves and blossoms. Our ancestors the Anglo-Saxons called it "oster-monath" or "eostur-monath" after the pagan goddess Eostre whose feast was in that month. Ironically, that's where Christians got the name of Easter for their feast and celebration. April is ripe with more than crops, with many life-changing events. Just 620 years ago today, Columbus received his commission for his voyage of discovery. And on this day 209 years ago, what is now Oklahoma became part of the united States when Jefferson completed the Louisiana Purchase in 1803. The month has been home to tragedy and triumph too. On April 19, 1775, a bunch of fed-up farmers started the Revolution by firing the "shot heard round the world," at the world's most powerful military at Concord and Lexington. From Emerson's 1837 "Concord Hymn":     "By the rude bridge that arched the flood,      Their flag to April’s breeze unfurled,      Here once the embattled farmers stood,      And fired the shot heard round the world." Ninety years later, the American Civil War began and ended four bloody years apart in Aprils, 1861-1865. On April 21, 1836, Sam Houston and his Texican army defeated Santa Anna at San Jacinto, winning independence. We've just noted the 100th year of The Titanic sinking, April 15, 1912. On this day in 1945, Hitler and his one day bride committed suicide in Berlin. And in Oklahoma, we're all aware of April 19 for a different reason, the 1995 bombing. http://www.oklahomacitynationalmemorial.org/ Other April events underscore greatness. The Russians put the first man in space in April, 1961. The supersonic Concorde first flew in April 1969. Shakespeare and Queen Elizabeth II's birthdays are in this month.  And finally, April oddities-- April starts on the same day of the week as July in all years, and January in leap years. April ends on the same day of the week as December every year. April has also been a month of romance, especially in music. "April Love," and "April in Paris."