Deer, Oh Dear
A polite but long-winded way to say that my mind was further stretched this week
Word!
This last week I’ve been writing words like these on boxes:
FILE - RECYCLE - SHRED - CHARITY SHOP? - GIVE AWAY
and also on files (some of them are box files):
GAS BILLS - WATER - BOILER - HEALTH - RECIPES - RANDOM
(I’m helping my Mum sort her stuff out. It’s a big job and I’m the person that’s going to do it.)
Word for word
This won’t come as a surprise to anyone here but I’m a huge fan of words. Boy, are they useful for writing (fiction, ’stacks, songs, limericks, double entendres, to-do lists, etc.) and, of course, also for reading, speaking and listening. Every time I see a word I don’t recognize in a piece of written text, I have to look it up immediately. Or, if the word is uttered (and assuming it’s not in the middle of a speech), I might interrupt the person talking to ask what it means (sorry, friend!).
People who spend a lot of time with me know that my memory is ridiculous for retaining seemingly insignificant moments of life. I don’t know why but I can sometimes remember exactly where and when, and who I was with, upon first encountering a word. (Of course, it’s like that with songs too, but that’s probably not so unusual).
New words that became normal
Almost three and a half years ago, I remember seeing the word zoonotic for the first time.
It was mid-March 2020, near the beginning of Our Times of Covid. I was talking to a freelance employer of mine; she had just hired me to do some research for a sizable arts grant her dance company was planning to apply for. I was in my apartment. She was in her country home, a few hours drive away from our potentially infectious city (and she had generously invited any of her staff or colleagues to join her if they were feeling vulnerable to contagion). We were talking via Zoom, an app I had just been instructed to download onto my computer.
(Flippin’ heck, I had to pause for a minute there as my mind just went off in another direction; I’ll come back to that thought right at the very end of this post.)
I had been reading an article about the provenance of Covid-19 in a mainstream news source. I’m pretty sure it must have been this one as I was an avid Guardian reader at the time. And then I noticed a word, zoonotic.
The new word was contained within a pair of words (zoonotic disease) and they came up as we discussed how to approach writing a letter to an environmental organization she hoped to partner with. And those two words were situated in the burgeoning context of what was, apparently, going to be our “new normal,” another word pairing that had also started to be bandied around (click image below.)
Both word pairings — zoonotic disease and new normal — were just beginning to be accepted into the vernacular. I did not question them. At the time I did not question at all how any words or phrases might have become a part of one’s everyday lingo. I had no clue about social engineering then.
Ah, so that’s how this catastrophe occurred. Understood!
I silently thanked dear Guardian of mine for educating me, for making me smarter, at the click of a link.
I remember wondering how a performing art might effect social change (as her dance theatre troupe always aimed to do) if a highly infectious disease was now to be part of our new normal. Could dance performance — or any performing art that depended on a number of people coming together in close physical proximity, as collaborators or audience —as we knew it, ever happen again? If so, how?
It was important to consider these questions if we were going to convince an environmental organization to partner with us as sponsors for a production that might happen one or two years down the road (it can take a while for grant funding to come through, not to mention for the funded work itself to be produced) in a future that none of us could imagine yet, given what we were being told.
Note that I didn’t question how other activities of life — gathering with family and friends, working together, taking public transport, sitting in a cafe or a a restaurant — might, or might not, work. None of it seemed real, and the new imagined future of a dance production seemed even more abstract, even more theoretical. I could not quite believe it might even be necessary to ponder a word such as zoonosis in the context of dance, but I was getting paid to think about it and, as always, I wanted to do a good job.
Words are flowing out like endless rain
Fast forward to a few weeks/months/years later (depending on what I was learning about), and especially to this week when another jigsaw puzzle piece got put in its place and you’ll see me laughing (kindly) at that naive me.
I have to be kind because, as I came to learn, like almost everyone in the whole world, I had been PsyOp’d on a plethora of matters.
For example:
Covid-19 and other so-called pandemics, including AIDS
How Science™ works
Health & nutrition
Fluoride in our water
Climate Change - Green Energy
Government, “democracy” and the Uniparty
The electoral system and voting
The purpose of most academic institutions
And last but certainly not least:
The impartiality and objectivity of mainstream news sources
to name but a few.
No words…
Which is why I ell oh elled this morning browsing Twitter during brekkers after I came across this combination of words:
Coronavirus Probably Spread Widely in Deer and Perhaps Back to People, U.S.D.A. Says
I laughed at the lamentable headline because well, it’s the NYT (Not Yielding Truth), and they will try anything to perpetuate nonsensical thinking in the minds of its ever-diminishing number of believers.
Did I also laugh at the image used of a real life Bambi and her Mum staring innocently at the photographer, both caught on camera like, um… a deer in the headlights?
No, that photo was too cute.
It was this next image that had me almost spilling the chai out of my mouth.
My first thoughts upon seeing that image.
This is an artwork of staggering genius! Thank you imaginative illustrator, whoever and wherever you are.
Of course, I was assuming the person who made this was taking the piss.
Yeah, we have to laugh and throw it back in their faces!
And then it occurred to me that it was likely made by AI.
Yeah, well then, good job! We have to use AI to throw back their nonsense in their faces.
Seriously the picture is so funny, I might make it my Substack avatar.
Anyway, giggles aside, what was it that happened to my mind this week?
First off let me state that I didn’t achieve my indulgent fantasy of sleeping for 3 days once I got to my Mum’s place in London. ’Twas a nice dream but it’s a) impolite to arrive at anyone’s home (but especially your parent’s place after more than a year) and pass out for 72 hours, b) actually not physically possible to sleep for that long, especially when you’re jet lagged. Consequently, I became fascinated (daytime had me watching-listening-sorting multitasking too) going further down a rabbit hole that I had only poked my head in once or twice before.
Folks, I am happy to announce that I am now…
… one of those “Excuse me, sir, but there ain’t no such thing as a bloody virus” types.
And I am all the more clearer for it!
I’ll have to tell you about that learning journey in a separate post because in a short while I’m going back to sorting more stuff out.
Bonus words (tho’ not quite the ending)
And that is also why I will laugh at the word zoonotic going forward, much as I like the sound of it phonetically.
There once was a word, zoonotic,
Which turned the whole world quite neurotic.
Such terms were invented
For “germs” to be presented,
When really,
with zero credible evidence, the notion is clearly idiotic.
NB. I will likely come back to this limerick and improve upon its metre.
Final, word-connecting, thoughts
Isn’t it funny that suddenly in March 2020 we all started using Zoom? (I had never heard of Zoom before then and I’m pretty tech-aware … correct me if I’m wrong).
What three-letter word does Zoom have in common with zoonotic?
The prefix zoo- or zo- refers to animals and animal life. It is derived from the Greek zōion, meaning animal.
The global deletes see the vast majority of humanity as expendable animals (ie. cattle or sheep that need to be herded and controlled) … how nice would it be for them to have us all holed up in our digital cages, communicating from within, especially if we enter them voluntarily?
OK friends, tomorrow I will take a screen break and go for a long walk! 🚶🏾♀️
There once was a word, zoonotic,
Which turned the whole world neurotic.
Such terms were invented
For “germs” to be presented,
By parasites who are clearly psychotic.
The transfer they claimed was zoonotic
This turned the whole world neurotic
They said it was "science"
But they were just lyin'
Since pangolins sound so hypnotic