For a very long time after World War II, we were all afraid. So much that we had regular drills for all emergency broadcast systems via radio, television, and even the public school systems. The kind where students would dive under their desks at a moment's notice and stay there until a bell rang for ALL CLEAR. Radio and television would always preclude their frightening alarms with the announcement: "THIS IS NOT AN EMERGENCY. IT IS ONLY A TEST." After which, the interrupted adult listener would remain frozen in whatever activity they had been engaged in before the loud, high-pitched buzzer lasted for its appointed time. Then the announcer's voice returned to assure listeners: "THIS WAS ONLY A TEST. We will now return you to your scheduled programming."
And for a long time, listeners subconsciously tacked on their own few seconds of silence just to make sure. It took a lot of years for that practice to disappear and sink silently back into the sea of daily living. In fact, a whole new generation grew up before it was almost completely forgotten. The fear didn't go away though. It simply conceded the loss and waited for a new generation to emerge that was sufficiently far away from their grandparents to be vulnerable again. And according to the news, that time has come. Fear is popping up in places, too. Poking its finger into weak spots here and there to see who will cave, or who will fight back.
*Useful Side-Note:
Fear doesn't fight back, by-the-way. It's under a mandate to do whatever people tell it to. However, eons of watching the generations has equipped it with multiple strategies of what humans will fall for--and if you listen to your fears long enough--they will settle down and live with you. Usually by the convincing logic that you were born with them and there's nothing you can do about it. Which is a lie. There is something you can do and I thought you should know. It's sort of like poison in nature: there's almost always an antidote growing nearby. But that's another subject...
The truth is, I have been gone a long time from this blog (I was off on a great adventure) and I have finally come back to start up the engines again, to see if this old vehicle will still run. I hope so. Because no matter how much time has passed, books are still my "vehicle of choice" that can take me away at a moment's notice to another place and time altogether. Refreshingly delightful for as long or as little as you like. No matter what sort of times we are living in. How cool is that? I've read bunches of them, lately. Which is why I'm flipping my closed review sign to OPEN again. So, THIS (blog post) IS NOT AN EMERGENCY. THIS IS ONLY A TEST to see how many of my wonderful reader friends are still out there. If you are reading it, drop a comment and let me know so we can read some books together. Meanwhile...Happy reading!
Lilly
