Italy is closed. Shut down. My eldest is infatuated with stuff like this.
“Never in my whole life has an entire country been shut down.”
I’ve always said that the end won’t come with nukes but either a computer something or a disease. Something viral. Do we cancel mail yet? It’s starting to feel like it could become Door Dash for Death. How about cash? Yikes.
I am not the type to believe the hype. Like, ever. My version of The Weather Channel is called “the window”. Always has been. I always know the thunderstorm or blizzard won’t be as bad as they say and I’m always right, given the chaos of hyperbole that usually comes in the telephone game of those phenomena.
But this thing is getting bigger. Not to add to the panic, but as a father and one lucky enough to have loved ones, should I allow the fear a space within me? For safety’s sake?
Is it weird that I’m torn whether I want Illinois to be locked down during school or summer? That I’m already planning to lose weight and read a lot as a long term shut-in? That I worry Netflix won’t work despite these plans?
People are dying. For many of those unaffected in this particular news cycle, the current plague is a joke. Some of this slice on it is tongue in cheek. Part of the humor is a byproduct of an era where gallows humor is tweetable gold. And part is a veil for fear.
Mostly I worry that if the worst comes it’ll be a quick quarantine. I’ll be locked away and not know for how long and I don’t know with whom. Or who I will be separated from for a mysterious stretch that could be the last forever. And that thought is scariest of all.
Idealiotic 
Yes that thought is scary. We are reading and listening about the spread of virus in so many places. And about schools being closed. I wonder how everything will end and when. Life must be terrible for all those who have the virus.
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Apparently we are thinking a like today… my plan is to just keep going until I am told not to!
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I don’t remember you being over the age of 60 so you should be okay. I’m more concerned about the people who read the news and thought that the thing to do is stock up on toilet paper. Was this a symptom I missed?
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It’s craziness! The unknown is always scary!
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At times like this we need humor to get us through. I have had doomsday thoughts running through my head and wonder when and how this will end.
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I do kind-of wonder whether I should take my mom, a fairly new nursing home resident, lots of non-perishable things to munch on in her room rather than journey to the cafeteria on the regular.
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All good thoughts. There has to be humor, there will be some fear, and there will be a lot of pondering. I think your final ponder is the difference with this one. At least it seems as if it could be. We don’t know. But one thing I do know about humans, we are really good problem solvers. Great problem creators too but never deny how good we are in a crisis.
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