I’ve been thinking about the coronavirus, and trying to figure out what to write about it. Nathan and I are taking the writing workshop in December about the Pandemic. I have not written any poetry about it yet. I’m not sure why. It’s so pervasive and endemic right now. I have not been avoiding the topic, just haven’t yet addressed it. It has definitely been on my mind, as it has everyone’s. When did wearing masks begin to feel so natural? When you stop to think about it, it’s really only been 6 months that we’ve been living with it. Doesn’t that seem strange… it feels like longer than that.

I miss things. I miss family gatherings where we could all throng about, but it makes the moments we do steal together to be that much more precious, phone calls and texts are so important. I miss going out to eat, but I have learned that I enjoy cooking, and I’m doubtless eating healthier, and saving money. I miss in person appointments with my doctors, but I have saved a lot of money on cab fare. I miss church, but have learned how to stay engaged with them online, and have found ways to feed my soul through reading, listening to music and writing.

I think, for some people it is not as difficult to stay home, and I am definitely one of those. I’ve always been most comfortable when I can be home, and I’m not very good (or happy) in social situations. The things I best like to do, like knitting and reading are solo enterprises. I’ve got Nathan, my best friend, and Phryne and Dot, and I really don’t need much more than that, aside from visits with the folks on occasion. This pandemic happened at a time of my life, with no kids at home to worry about providing school for, and at a moment of my life, when I decided to leave the world of work, that makes it pretty easy for me to be content personally day-to-day.

Please do not mistake me! I am certainly not welcoming of a worldwide pandemic, and the general air of anxiety that is gripping the world has also affected me physically and emotionally. Nathan deals with the pandemic all day long, and I see it as my small part to make his home life as easeful and refreshing as I can. I am just sick when I see images on my TV screen of college kids romping hip to hip in swimming pools and school hallways thronged with children, maskless, pressed together like sardines. I get so frustrated and angry with people who refuse to wear masks, and at people who spread misinformation and lies, and who refuse to listen to and honor scientists. We could have done better. Much better. And in the middle of all the anxiety and conspiracy theories we have great civil unrest, a population divided so viciously against each other. Everyone seems to feel the need to pick an opposing side. I have to take an antacid if I want to watch the news. I may not have kids at school, but I have family who does, and my heart goes out to the choices they must make. My heart aches when I hear stories of people dying alone, and of isolation of the elderly. On top of everything we have an election coming up that is already brimming with spite and ugliness: fear over the state of democracy is adding fuel to the fire.

There is plenty to write about. I just need to do it.