Is There A Pandemic Going On?

These past three weeks have been incredibly stressful.

I have been worrying about my family living in Indiana. Coronavirus cases are skyrocketing there. It is so bad that almost the entire state has been designated a Red Zone.

When I talk to my parents on the phone they do not show the slightest bit of worry. In fact, my mom says she is not afraid, “If I get it I get it,” she quipped at the end of our last phone call.

The fear I have is a wild beast that I have trouble keeping on a chain. I am afraid enough for both of us.

This week Mom sent me a package containing my hometown newspapers. In the local paper were pictures of students and parents watching ballgames indoors. Many of them were not even wearing a mask. School is in session there and close to 1/3 of the student body of my niece’s high school was out on a given day, quarantining because of virus exposure.

Here in the Mid- Atlantic the schools are closed for in person learning. There are no high school sports seasons being played. Our governor has been adding new restrictions each week because…

Um, there is a Pandemic going on, people.

My personal physical and mental health has suffered greatly in these past three weeks. I am having heart palpitations, and stress is the friend I carry in knots tied up on my back. I am literally worried sick.

We did have a conversation about this scenario over the summer. My children and I begged our family in Indiana to take more precautions, to remain vigilant and to do all they could to protect my parents and my uncle who are all rapidly approaching eighty years old.

It did not go well.

At all.

There are still hard feelings between my brother and some of my kids. I think my mom is angry with me for bringing the issue up at all.

So I have not said a negative word when I am told about how things are going back home. I have not asked my parents to forego their traditional Thanksgiving dinner inside their home this year. I would just be alienating them. They really don’t see the risk… family first, they would tell me.

This summer when I was having a particularly hard time processing the differences of opinion in our family my uncle told me that I had better get used to the idea of the people of his generation not being around. He told me they are all getting older and they don’t have that many years left to live.

This is not something I have trouble imagining these days.

If you haven’t made up your mind how you are going to celebrate the holidays this year, please celebrate safely, outdoors, keeping your distance, with masks on if you need to get close.

The hope of the vaccine is shimmering on the horizon. Please don’t let a meal inside your house become someone’s last supper. It is not worth it.

Finally, I would like to thank our current president, Donald Trump, for sewing the seeds of confusion and doubt in the Mid -West. Congratulations, you have done a fantastic job.

I am wondering, are you playing your fiddle? Indiana is burning.