Today is Tuesday, April 21, 2020. I have been thinking about how to best record this weird time in our history in my own space, here on the blog. Since the goal of my blog is to share stories from my view, I guess it makes sense to take a bit of a detour from my typical style of writing. So it starts today.
I looked back through my morning pages, which for those who don't know is basically a journal. They were so named by Julia Cameron, the author of many books - among them, The Artist Way. She explains, "Put simply, the morning pages are three pages of longhand writing, strictly stream-of-consciousness."
I no longer do them longhand, but I try to do a little writing everyday and I consider them my own version of her morning pages. Almost none of what I write there makes it here in its complete form, but often serves as inspiration or the processing center for whatever does make it here. Which lately hasn't been a lot.
I took a quick look back near the date that our current situation seems to have started really rolling, and found this comment in the middle of my pages from February 29, 2020.
"The flu is going around now. It’s been bad. I think I might have just a cold, or a very mild version of whatever the rest of the team had. And most of them have had some version of it by now. I’m doing everything I can to keep healthy. Diffusing oils, drinking and taking Airbourne, resting, etc. I hope it will pass quickly and we can get on with whatever it is… :-)"
At the time, we thought our daughter had brought something back with her from a trip she took to Texas for work. But the symptoms were different for many of us and some were sicker than others. It lasted longer for some than others. For me, it included a persistent dry cough. We have wondered since if that was actually Covid-19. We will never know.
Life is actually quite different right now. I hope to write more about the ways that is true for us in the days to come.
To start - John has been working from home since March 16. Rachel has been doing her college classes online since then also. School was cancelled in Illinois as of Tuesday, March 17, but many kids simply didn't go back after Spring break. They have been doing their best to do distance learning. Some parents are buckling down and doing their best, others are simply unable to cope with all the changes and are taking it one day at a time.
Stores are closed, restaurants are open for delivery and curb-side pickup only, playgrounds are off limits, face masks are a common practice for many as the CDC encouraged everyone to use them when they are outside of their homes. That despite the fact that wearing them does nothing to prevent being exposed to the virus, but helps decrease the chances of exposing others if you have it.
As a society, we are certainly learning many things about ourselves. This is definitely a classroom where we will all learn more than we ever thought possible.
Just as a matrix for knowing where we were today - total US cases reported on ARCGIS.com at 8:36 AM is 787,960. The numbers we have available most certainly are not accurate, but only those that have managed to be tested and reported. Because so many people are asymptomatic and because testing is still not easily available, those numbers are most likely a small portion of actual positive cases.
I have been hearing, and I am coming to believe, that life will never quite be the same again. There will be some silver linings, if we can open our eyes to them. I hope the lessons are not wasted on us.