Thursday, April 02, 2020

Journal of a Plague Year, Monday, March 31

The consequences of isolation are setting in. Two people contacted me in the past few days for no particular reason, other than the need to communicate.

I had sent an email to the one friend a few weeks ago asking if her family was OK. One member was in a nursing home, and the one in Seattle was in the news. I got a short note back saying all was well.

This time, the person gave more details. Both her children live in states with more cases of Coronavirus than New Mexico, and both had been laid off. She said she got nervous when she didn’t hear from them every day at the expected time.

The other was a neighbor who called to tell me the governor had closed the gun shops, and wanted to warn me against a possible break in.

The governor’s order to close non-essential businesses had been issued on March 23, and this was a week later. Nothing had happened yet. As anyone knows who reads the local newspaper, guns are more likely to be used in arguments than in robberies in Española.

But this is not a rationale time. Conspiracy theories abound in an environment of unknown dangers. Everyone wants to do whatever is necessary to remain safe. For some that means toilet paper, and for others guns.

No comments:

Post a Comment