Strange days. We listened to President Trump’s talk about the China corona-virus this afternoon and learned his advisers have recommended we stay in self-quarantine through the month of April. That is really fine with us on a micro level. Lorena and I enjoy being together in the house. I have my work and school. Lorena has plenty of cooking, painting, and cleaning projects she not only does, but enjoys doing. The kids seem OK, too. Both of them have their jobs, but are getting a little stir-crazy staying in their apartments, albeit their apartments are very nice. Still, life seems somewhat surreal. Tío Lauro, who always seems to have his finger on the zeitgeist, paints a self-portrait that really captures the spirit of the moment. We love his art.

My reading of the prophesies of Cyrus the Great in Isaiah 44 and 45 have heightened my sense that something monumental is in the works. Somewhere around 150 years before it happened, Isaiah prophesied of the liberation of Israel by Cyrus to return to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple. Isaiah actually used Cyrus’s name in the prophesy. The archaeological record appears to strongly back this up and even Josephus pipes in with confirmation of what was believed about the event in the first century. This seems to be one of those kinds of things. At the same time, my Aunt Fern (99 years old and going strong) talks about this very same feeling people had during World War II. This might be the same thing.

But maybe not.