Social distancing is the mantra being echoed around the world. My teaching practice had to close at the studio. Even if I disinfect the keys after each student, the fear of the virus is real and can’t be easily wiped down.
Fortunately, a good deal of my students are happy to meet for their lesson via video call. The video lesson times have been my bits of sunshine to counter the doom and gloom current news. Solitude, miserable rainy weather, plus reading through loads of Covid-19 updates was weighing me down.
I haven’t been in the company of another person since last Friday. I feel like an astronaut and I’m floating in space alone. I’m used to choosing to not be sociable over the weekend but this is the first weekend where I’m not sure when I will enjoy being with someone I know next. Nursing a cold alone, I had a low moment thinking I was going to die alone during the shut-in. But family and friends checked on me as well as parents of my students. Everyone feels a poignant unity experiencing the shared uncertainty.
My cold went away and my spirits rose as I had online piano lessons to plan and look forward to. I even gathered a couple of my best friends for an online tea party. We toasted to lemon and honey tea and hung out for a couple of hours discussing which vitamins to take to optimize our immune systems and wondering if we are heading toward a dystopian future.
We are all living through something we only watch in movies.
The Clovid-19 news is a mix of ominous and confusing. News from Italy says to take this quarantine seriously yet opinion from beach goers in Florida are nonchalant. I’m seeing a clash of the generations brewing where younger people are upset as to why they ought to stop living their life normally just to keep older people safe. They are, after all, not likely to die. Our country is anticipating people with breathing difficulties to start cropping up in the next week or so. We don’t see the bedlam yet because we are ahead of the storm. I think bad times are coming. My sister-in-law who works in healthcare has been working on prepping for the virus since January, modifying protocols they had formed while preparing for Ebola. She says things are crazy. They are now looking at which doctors are available to help and come OUT of retirement.
The storm is coming and to some other’s reality, it is here. If you don’t feel the rain on your face yet, you will. This social distancing time is to gain some buffer time for our hospitals and lessen the tsunami.
My students are too young to care for themselves and are enjoying their parents, grandparents and great grandparents. They seem to be taking the quarantine in better stride. If minding the social distancing mandate means keeping people they love especially their caretakers safe, they will roll with it. We are just in the beginning of the storm, a storm that I hope ends before I celebrate my birthday in a couple of months. Until then, I will look forward to teaching and seeing my friends through video calls.
I’m grateful for technology. I know I’m not alone in outer space though it feels like it. Stay safe everyone and may God bless you and your loved ones with good health. We are all in this together.
JNET