The original item was published from July 31, 2020 7:37 AM to July 31, 2020 7:37 AM
This morning I had a shock when a woman hailed me at the park. She recognized me as someone who used to attend her church. From a safe distance, we shared Christian matters. A second woman who knew me joined the conversation.
“The church is closed during the pandemic,” said the first woman.
“Good!” I said. “Ministers ought to encourage people to remember God doesn’t have to be worshiped in a building.”
(Words to that effect.)
“Well, several people got sick from Covid so he made a hard decision and told people to stay home.”
“Why? Why?” I thought, but said,
“Where’s the difficult decision? Where’s the common sense? The minute a confirmed case of the disease was announced in this country should have been the moment to stop all unnecessary contact with others.”
Not wait for people to get sick.
Unsaid thought. No point in being rude, right?
In the interests of the comment’s word count limits, I will skip over the part where the first woman announced that she was cutting off any further discussion, using arm motions to demonstrate “cutting through the conversation.”
“You and I are in total disagreement about everything except God.”
Her anger was apparent. I felt bad for her. However, from a social distance, the three of us prayed and parted in Christian charity, as mutual answers to our previous week’s prayers to spread love. Deliver us from evil.
The original item was published from April 20, 2020 8:20 AM to April 20, 2020 8:20 AM
2500 characters Remember a time with the sun shining bright?
Not a worry or trouble anywhere in sight.
You hurried to work not a care in the world,
and held your breath as Old Glory unfurled.
People touching and caring in the usual way,
then the last hour of normal slowly slipped away.
Did you see the workers set off for their jobs?
Just regular folks, not them Wall Street snobs.
They toiled and they played, not a care around,
taking for granted the blessings they found.
Just laughing and singing their worries away,
‘til the last hour of normal just slipped away.
Did you don a mask and hide from the world?
Or sit on the couch, all comfy and curled.
Sad and alone, just mopin’ at home,
Countin’ the days until you can roam.
Hopin’ for good news that’ll make us all gay,
when the first hour of normal returns to stay
The original item was published from April 7, 2020 9:19 AM to April 14, 2020 2:07 PM
Awareness of the pandemic’s imminent arrival despite official announcement of only one case, a foreign traveler in or out of the first-struck-to-worldwide attention who landed in California along with Covid-19 disease, first alarmed me when I thought of my girls who had traveled to Israel the previous month.
Oh, sure, I heard vaguely we had this new thing to worry about. However, living alone for so many years and learning to relax and enjoy it, I did not have the worrywart eruption until one of my daughters reported she was sick overseas.
This led to enhanced awareness once again of danger threatening the only people that are capable of fretting me. My children, all grown, independent in every way including politically, are only like their mother in that they don’t fret about this, that, and every germ that the fake news reports. Their mother, however, does not consider any news “fake,” but just spends most online time reading up on things like how close to roses can I plant my beets and what happened in the land of camels that I can use in my latest fantasy story.
Suddenly every single day electronic blips blast their voices into my consciousness accusing (your chosen scapegoats) of lying, deceiving, hating, doing a good/horrible job. All the anxiety I thought had gone into remission in November 2016 and overcome when it surfaced again in September 2020, resurged with malevolent force.
The spurious superficiality of my mental exercises disappeared when I learned of the extent of the lies imposed upon us as persons undeserving of the truth. At least, this is the reaction I had when I realized we were walking around infecting each other with no way to know who was carrying the disease and who might succumb to the deadly pneumonia that did not strike only elderly persons. The lack of truth coupled with the ignoring of our presence as human beings in need of real leadership cost me a few nights sleep.
After wrestling through the contradictory emotions that wanted to blame the most obvious person for lack of information, in order to relieve the sense I, too, was a stupid ignoramus with not enough judgment to investigate beyond the federal assurances of safety, I realized the futility of such a struggle.
No, I do not cut my leaders in Washington any slack whatsoever. They asked for the job of caring for national need to the best of their ability. I will not tolerate lies or mince words when I write our state elected officials.