Staying Home

We've all been staying home and we all know a new phrase that we hadn't heard before. At least I hadn't.

Social distancing.

This is awful. Coronavirus, Covid-19, whatever you want to call it, is terrible. People dying, dying I say, is just awful. And just so sad. Mothers, fathers, grandparents, friends, people you don't even know, people you do know.  I worry about my father. He is 91 and smack dab in the bullseye of this pandemic.

I talk to him everyday. I worry about him everyday.

Another word I'd never heard of--pandemic. Learning things I never wanted to learn. And being rich and famous means nothing to this juggernaut.  Do you remember where you were when you first heard of Tom Hanks and his wife Rita Wilson? I do. And now down this sinister road goes John Prine?

So sad.

It’s hard watching the news on television, it just wears me out. I read four newspapers everyday and that wears me out, too. Everyday bad news, everyday another "Run Forrest Run!" moment or two or ten. I've learned the phrase, 'Those on the frontlines', I know the importance of ventilators, the importance of not shaking hands, the importance of self quarantining.  And thank you doctors, nurses, volunteers.  Every time I go out shopping for food I wear a mask and gloves.

When I go to the grocery store everyone in there has a mask on and we all look like bank robbers. If you had told me six months ago this would be the new normal I would have laughed and thought you had a great imagination.

Nobody's laughing now.

And while I'm at it thank you to all the people working in there too.

I've learned to wipe counters and door handles and light switches and, well, everything with anti-bacterial wipes. I've washed my hands ten thousand times. Maybe twenty thousand.

It's like the Twilight Zone.

They closed down my YMCA weeks ago so I walk a mile or two everyday for exercise and our streets are full of people doing the same. There's just one thing, as people are coming down the sidewalk toward you, you head towards the bike lane on the road so you can keep your distance.

My Lola can't believe her good fortune. She goes on more walks now than ever before.

Like most everyone I'm home binge watching shows, face timing friends and laughing at junk on Facebook. Trying to keep a smile on my face in these troubling times. And trying not to drink too much red wine.

It may just be me but I think some good may come from this.

We're in the age of snark, of saying nasty things, of not seeing someone else's point of view. Whenever Real Housewives comes on I always think, "They're supposed to be friends?" I think shows like that, plus people shouting at each other on news programs instead of listening and then making your point, and on and on, will change. Oh, you'll still have stuff like that but it will be a dull roar as opposed to a roaring bonfire.

It sounds naive but I was always taught to treat people like you want to be treated.

I think we'll come out of this changed and I think it will be for the better. Think more CBS Sunday Morning and less TMZ. After all we're all Americans, right? We're all decent human beings, right?

In the meantime I've been clinging to a phrase like a life boat in rough seas. I'm not alone in clinging to it.

The phrase?

And this too shall pass.




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