FEST21's blog

The Life and Times of Aphra Behn

Leslie Ann Provatas

Researching history is no small work.  It is a good thing I love history and it is a good thing I love my protagonist enough to care that I get the history of her lifetime right. 

I have been a bit under the weather but that is nothing new. I am fighting to stay healthy and to rearrange a lot of very uninteresting paperwork pertaining to everyday life. It's about changing status to get some help. All mundane stuff that takes up a lot of my energy and time but that must be done so that I have a roof over this head and some food in my belly. Times sure are tough everywhere.  It is not like it is tough in some poor countries, it is tough in the richest country in the world. That is how tough it really is. The worst part is the inequity between that one percent of the population that holds 40 plus percent of the wealth of the richest country in the world and what they are doing and planning. That is the question now and they are scared. They are so scared they are trying to scare everyone else but it is not working because when you have nothing, you have nothing to lose. I do believe, Bob Dylan sang that and I am sure he is right about it. 

So as it turns out, those one-percenters are not scary at all.  They are the ones who have something to lose. Not the rest of us. So, because I love what I do I am not scared nor am I rushing for anyone to do anything in particular, I will just keep doing what I know I have to do and do it well and help others to do what they want to do and to be healthy, wealthy and wise and to appreciate and hold no grudges against anyone and I do take sole responsibility for all that happens within my realm. I am excited about life and I am am mad about anyone who would hurt anyone else. In actuality, there is enough to go around and there is no need to fear but greed is something to watch out for because it twists and turns people into unrecognizable examples of what we call human beings. Greed kills. Greed is the number one cause of war, fear and hatred. 

Now on to story telling. On to telling our children and our grandchildren the good of it, life and how to avoid the bad. 

Now is the time to fight those who would try to control us, confuse us, use us and abuse us. This is an exciting time to be alive.  I am happy to be here. 

I'll be getting back to you soon.  See you in the Spring in London, at Cannes or perhaps in Athens.  I am looking forward to a productive winter in the woods near to where Walt Whitman lived and where I was born. NMRK 

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