It's A Beautiful World

 I begin today by making a public appreciation to a friend and constant reader who recently sent me a pair of cloth face coverings. Considerate enough given the current circumstances, but these particular masks were emblazoned with DEVO's motto and logo: Duty Now For The Future. Safe, washable, and forward thinking. "It's time to go forward, move ahead, and give the past the slip." 

And now, the news: The man who co-wrote those words, Mark Mothersbaugh, almost died this past June. From the virus my good friend and constant reader was so very thoughtful to help keep me safe. When I read this, the entirety of 2020 passed before me and I thought, "Well, this year just missed being terrifically worse." For me. If not for you. Of his experience, Mothersbaugh had this to say: “Everything’s become more devolved than I would have imagined possible. For anybody that’s doubting whether the coronavirus and COVID-19 is real, it’s really real.”

I suspect that DEVO fans are not among the core group of virus deniers. If there are any spuds out there with doubts, you should know that the chief architect of de-evolution spent weeks in a hospital, on a ventilator, experiencing delusions and clinging to life. “I was convinced for about two weeks that I had been hit by a brick by somebody in Little Tokyo. I felt blood from being hit. I was handcuffed to a parking deck downtown. I had this whole elaborate story of how these kids sold me to an ambulance company that then got some sort of a payment for delivering COVID patients to their ICUs. I totally believed it,” While this sounds like a great set of images for a new wave song, or a post-modern collage, a world without Mark Mothersbaugh would not be so beautiful. 

For me. 

My wife, who read the article about my hero's near-death experience, had this to take away: "Mark Mothersbaugh is seventy?"

Yes. Mark Mothersbaugh is seventy. And I hope will see seventy-one, seventy-two, and so on. 

It's a beautiful world we live in
A sweet romantic place
Beautiful people everywhere
The way they show they care 

Thank you for the mask. Thank you for sparing one of my semi-major-demigods. 2020 needs all the help it can get.