Slightly apocalyptic photo by Sandra Miller.
I just read Trove author Sandra A. Miller’s latest essay about life in quarantine, and it’s as close as anyone has gotten to reflecting how I feel deep-down, while providing a path forward. Here’s a passage from the piece, titled What’s Love Got to Do With This?, but be sure to read it all. Well worth your time.
World, we are scared. We are freaked out by this Coronavirus that is threatening to come for our asthmatic lungs, our dads in nursing homes, our elderly neighbors, and even our 21-year-old sons (thank you, Phinny), who bravely make the CVS run for our inhaler prescriptions without knowing what aerosol particles are lurking around some asymptomatic, but infected, customer.
Every New York Times news dive is another opportunity to contract more tightly into ourselves. We have countless chances each day to stop, pause, and panic.
But here’s the thing. Right now, I’m not on the front lines. I’m not crawling into a blue hazmat suit and dragging my tired, possibly sick, body into Mass General Hospital to care for people who can’t draw a breath. I’m not a cashier at Stop ‘n’ Shop ringing up that guy with the cough who’s buying a bottle of Advil and the last thermometer on the nearly naked shelves.
I’m here in my comfortable home, writing and teaching online in my living room that smells like disinfectant, with my two college kids upstairs doing their Zoom classes. I have thirty days’ worth of food if we don’t mind eating pasta twice a week—and who does? And every afternoon I head out to the Fellsway or Walden Pond to walk a few miles. I am fine, and I am determined not to waste this time of burgeoning awareness.
Two years ago, I heard Oprah speak at the University of Massachusetts, Lowell where I teach. This is one of the most poignant things she told the Tsongas Center crowd: “Every morning, I wake up and ask, how can I serve?”
That’s my answer to this virus. Asking, how can I serve?
The most obvious way to serve is to try not to catch or spread this dreadful thing. By now, we know how to wash our hands, elbow a door open, and have a conversation from a six-foot distance (my friend Holloway suggested we wear hoop skirts when walking in crowded places). We also need to connect with and care for people, make sure our loved ones and neighbors are okay without risking our lives, or theirs. And that, too, is serving.
By the way, thank you to all the seniors who took advantage of our quarantine sale this month. The 50% discount is still on through April 1, then the books go back to their regular prices. For those of you worried about contamination: As of today, all of our books (and my entire family) have been fully quarantined for 14 days. Even so, I disinfect every book before it goes out. To retrieve the discount, just use the code SENIOR at checkout.
Be sure to use the discount code SENIOR at checkout.