My Thinking Path, Walks in the Past in the Times of COVID-19

Much has changed along the Charles River stretch downriver toward Boston. The waterfalls muffle the surrounding with the sound of the falling stream and the image of Meryl Streep canoeing in the movie, 'River Wild' encourages you to push on with your life.

My thoughts keep me company during my leisurely walk at sunset and keep me socially distant from the rest of the world.

It is not a walk but a journey into life stories to be told and steer courage.

The journey can be divided into 5 parts:

Part 1: The stretch from Common Street to Watertown Square: 1 mile

Zorro against Covid-19

How we all become ‘vigilantes’ against an invisible enemy. Who is going to wear the best mask?

Part 2: The stretch from Watertown Square to the Newton Yacht Club: 1 mile

‘Lavagna’ against “Lavanna’

How I almost refused to go to kindergarten confused with the meaning of lavagna (Italian), blackboard, and lavanna (Sicilian dialect), butt plug.

Part 3: The stretch from Newton Yacht Club to Community Rowing: 1 mile

What came first? “The chicken or the egg? How my mom taught me great science lessons without a PH.D.

Part 4: The stretch from Community Rowing to Watertown Yacht Club: 1 mile

How the braciere, brazier warmed your body and made you feel loved and connected through storytelling.

Part 5: The stretch from Watertown Yacht Club to Watertown Square: 1 mile

How humans have continually co-existed with plagues. How Boccaccio envisioned 100 stories when writing the Decameron during the Black Death in the mid-1300s. (Brought to Europe from Asia in the port of Messina, Sicily, my birth town.)

Part 6: The stretch from Watertown Square back to Common Street: 1 mile

How the distance is 5 miles but you have six stories to tell. 10 days and 100 stories for Boccaccio. 5 miles and 6 stories for me.