The Little Thngs

Last night, just at sunset, my daughter and I took a walk around the neighborhood. The orange glow from the west provided plenty of light on our way along the winding sidewalks. Inside the houses we passed, life was being lived in all the little ways that sustain us.

Dinners were being prepared, dishes were being washed, music was being listened to. More active pursuits were happening as well -- people were eating, singing, dancing and talking.

Everyone's got questions about this Corona-V visitor that has unfortunately deposited itself in our midst. Today's New York Times, the best newspaper in America, had a story entitled

Is the Virus on My Clothes? My Shoes? My Hair? My Newspaper?

The news is mostly good, according to the author's sources. You are at very little risk of contracting this virus from your daily activities (like walking your dog), or from your clothes, shoes, hair or newspaper, unless a very ill person sneezed on you at close range.

Doing your laundry will handle whatever low level of Corona-V (my preferred name) you may have picked up along the way. Mostly it's a matter of aerodynamics -- your slow-moving body basically pushes the virus droplets out of the way as you circumnavigate the obstacles you encounter in the world around you.

Those droplets fall harmlessly to the ground, where they wither and die. Bye-bye Corona-V! We hardly knew 'ye and we're both better off as a result.

***

Yesterday's Times had another provocative story; that one quoted public health officials who label nursing homes and assisted living facilities as "death traps."

Not a very nice thing to say about the (mostly) stellar facilities staffed by caring professional health workers seeking to comfort and care for our vulnerable elderly. But the disproportionate percentage of Corona-V deaths occurring in such places tells its own story.

In order to stay afloat as businesses, these places need to rely on low-paid, poorly educated workers who serve meals and push wheelchairs and perform all of the other vital tasks that keep things running smoothly. They also normally live outside of the facility, meaning they come in contact with many other people.

Almost every such place all over America is under lockdown right now. The dining rooms and activity centers are shuttered; the residents are urged to stay in their rooms. Those workers I mentioned bring you your meals. They go room to room, resident to resident, three times a day.

Should they be carrying Corona-V, they become what might be called disease vectors.

***

I mentioned the little things that we all do to keep going, to get on with our daily lives. Inside each of those houses my daughter and I passed on our walk last night are the stories of lives being lived. In a conversation with one of my sisters recently, she dismissed some of her own activities  -- including sewing and knitting -- as not as creative as, say, writing or singing professionally for audiences.

Are you kidding me?

What could be more creative and loving than knitting a shawl for a new baby in the family? Some of us write, some sing, some sew and some knit. Some cook, some build, some serve, some carry. Some people lend you an arm when you are having difficulty crossing a street.

Sometimes a young person, perhaps one with a different skin  color than yours, rises when you enter a bus and says, "Here, sir, please take this seat."

Sometimes all it takes is a little thing like that; that and the exchange of smiles.

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