Global Pandemic. Lightning Storms, Fires, Smoke, Unhealthy Air Quality then an Earthquake. Repeat.
On Friday September 18th, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg passed away; Los Angeles experienced another earthquake and my family in the Midwest found out they had Covid. Their neighbor said he was never going to wear a mask.
As a country, today there are now 200,000 American deaths across the US. California has had 778,400 confirmed cases and 14,987 deaths. In LA county, there are 1343 new cases.
My birthday happened during the pandemic. Most people forgot. My mother-in-law who resides in a county where covid cases have not yet surged, said to me, “Sorry I missed your birthday. How are you feeling that I forgot to call you on your birthday?”
I was quiet. I didn’t know how to respond.
“Well, what are you two going to do tonight to celebrate? Aren’t you going to go out and celebrate? Why don’t you go dancing?”
I was bewildered and asked, “Are you proposing that I go to the bars and clubs tonight?”
“Yes, wouldn’t that be nice?” she urged me.
“I think all the bars and clubs are closed,” I couldn’t believe I was having this conversation. The last I checked, I reside in the middle of a city that has more widespread surging cases every day than most states, where the virus greedily spreads indoors especially in bars and night clubs and yet, I was feeling heckled by this family member for not partying like a rock star, gathering shoulder to shoulder with hundreds of others in indoor venues in the middle of a global pandemic??
My weekly phone calls with various family & friends across the country can be shocking at times.
But with very close family in the Midwest, towards the beginning of the pandemic, I was concerned but felt hopeful for their safety.
“We are all really careful. Cassie is freaked out about the whole covid thing. Donna is freaked out about the whole covid thing. Dana looks at the CDC website. Dana has had to take the covid test three times getting her mom help,” my mother assured me.
But as the summer went on, my mother and her husband grew tired of covid, they would have one weekend after another full of social outings planned. “He can’t stand to stay home.”
“I know it’s hard and no one really likes to stay at home,” I was trying to be careful, “but it’s probably not a great idea to travel or to be out and about, hanging out in close proximity with your friends, right?” I was trying to nudge her respectfully.
“I know, but this isn’t L.A. We never really had cases here. There were a few but it’s mainly in the big city. It missed us,” my mother was trying to get me not to worry.
“Yeah but we live in a highly mobile society, right? So, it’s not a matter of if the virus will arrive, it’s when. I know you’re tired of covid. Everyone is tired of covid. It’s easy to get complacent but that seems to be the pattern: complacency, letting our guards down, and then before ya know it, the virus is widespread,” I was sort of pleading.
“Don’t worry about us. We have our bubble. We are very careful. We’ll be fine,” my mother tried to reassure me.
Yesterday, I missed a phone call from my mother. She never calls on a Sunday. “Well, Phil tested positive for Covid Friday and I think I have it too. Well I don’t think I have it, I know I have it.”
I just wish we would all be on the same page from #45 to scientists from state to state from city to city and from town to town.
