Day 1: 3/15/2020
The stakes are high right now. People are getting sick and
dying all over the world. But I seem to be in suspended animation, as if we
lived inside a surrealistic play or in an airplane that never landed.
Tonight we plan to watch the debate between Biden and Sanders, which should be weird
without a studio audience. We need to get used to events that occur in a vacuum. Last
night, the Minnesota Orchestra cancelled its performance. Instead, it was
broadcast on Minnesota Public Radio; the musicians played the scheduled program
to an empty hall.
Lots of our life has gone online or been cancelled. Church is
now online, the benefit of which is that one can go at any time. The
Metropolitan Opera is online. Helpful Facebook friends have sent links to
online museums. My academic friends are trying to figure out how to conduct
their classes online.
Plays, social gatherings, concerts, book groups, and almost
every other group event has been cancelled—even March Madness. The hording is
very discouraging. Empty shelves at Target were one thing, but when the organic
veggies at my local food coop were almost sold out, I was surprised. We have
lots of food, although not all of it is precisely what I wanted. Others got
there before me. And we will need toilet paper before too long. Wonder who will
have it?
I have ordered
ingredients for homemade hand sanitizer but will have to wait another week
before Amazon can ship the aloe vera gel. I suspect others have thought of this
stratagem after finding no commercial hand sanitizers anywhere.
Our little world has already shrunk to Lilliputian size. Maybe
a giant will arrive, and we can tie him down to distract ourselves in the
absence of other amusements. I do have one in mind. But that is another story.
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