Surreal times

How you do you do a report from the middle of nowhere about the most surreal times ever? 

We've had one visitor from Seattle here and she knows how we live: peacefully, with little contact with others.Our place is exactly the same as always, which is what you want in times like these. Birds, quiet, kindness, no panic. 

And then you turn left or right and happen upon the unequivocal signs of the virus, and you're back in a very cheap, badly done movie with no good special effects.

I was inordinately laid down by the death by Covid of the scion of the local store in my old Seattle neighborhood, and that triggered memories of AIDS, at the health helm of which was then, as now, Anthony Fauci. I remember when we knew nothing, then some things, then mostly everything we needed to know. But there was no urgency then. The dead didn't matter. Perhaps the swiftness will make a difference this time.

WV had no cases at all and when people learned that information the response was invariable, "We finally won something." Then we did have cases, and now it's right near us in our county, just like it is for everyone else. We have a lot of black lung here, of course, and old people, and underinsured people. So it's going to get bad.

Yet we are rich compared to most West Virginians. When we heard that lockdown was coming, I decided to call our local kayak place and order up all the gear we would need to stay outside happily until October. All stores like that close tonight. The young boys at the shop were so grateful they came out to install the racks themselves. 

Then I left the ghost college-town with its homeless folks coughing on each other, through the spring countryside past donkeys and sheep, past broken-down trailers, coming home at last to the happy pets and my girl. I struggled, as I have all my life, with holding all the contradictions. Do I not take care of myself so I'll feel less guilty? Do I take care of myself so I can help other people? How much should I help other people? What, in fact, would help at all?


I know everyone reading this is somewhere in that argument with themselves as well.

Kayaks+sanitizer

So I hold onto the little I know: It helps to have a practice, to continue ritual, to live with animals and be patient with them, to get outside as much as possible, to count and recount blessings. 

Both Ann and I are fortunate to be able to work from home and in that regard little has changed. Ann now has to teach online, which she hates, but at least her students are not technical, so they can all muddle through together.

To welcome the spring we went to the very highest mountain in the state, Spruce Knob, taking both dogs, and had a truly wonderful, simple time. Mica clearly thought she was being taken Somewhere Unknown😱 so had to be coaxed out of the car each time we stopped. But they were delirious with the new smells and when we finally got home Mica ran around licking everyone including PD.

Another ritual: At night before bed PD runs upstairs to jump on the bed and roll on her back to play with me. Then Bodie hops up and chases her off. She then goes to Mica's bed nearby and makes biscuits while purring so loudly we have never been able to resist laughing. Then Bodie climbs off because he's too hot and Mica comes up from the downstairs to take her rightful place in the middle of the bed, separating us in the true way of children who want both parents and aren't being disciplined at all. That's not all! In the morning they all follow Ann downstairs to be fed, then come back and yin-yang me to the bed so I can't get up and must sleep another hour. 

At the local Walmart everyone is polite and kind, but there are no paper products and there is lots of produce. Also lots of good coffee (as opposed to canned, which is gone) and good yogurt, because poverty.

We have two people who've asked to come quarantine in our cabin if need be and we are relieved to be able to say yes, of course. While it was being built the contractor kept insisting on good insulation and a strong foundation and solid walls and we kept thinking, this must be for something bigger than just a guest cabin. So it is. 

Music, animals, hay, abundance, prayer, play, work, spring, food, spring water, kayaks, love. Enough.

Love to you all, please write a comment or an email or just send virtual kisses and we can shower them all over each other safely! Hang in there.