Night Walks
Thoughts about COVID, family, and the fate of the universe, starting with Earth
Every night, before I go to bed I take a walk. I began on the winter solstice last December (2021). At the time, everyone my age felt isolated and shut off from the world because COVID was very threatening. It constantly felt as if two deep breaths of the wrong air could put us in the hospital, or worse.
My walks were a reaction to that. I needed to get out of the house. I didn’t want to be around anyone, and I needed a placebo for protection. I had read that if I stressed my body with very cold air or water on a regular basis it would strengthen my immune system. I read that many people were freezing themselves in cold showers or rolling in the snow. So I began going out each night at around ten PM. In the beginning it was 28 degrees, then 14 degrees, 7 degrees, and once it was -3. I don’t know if it really had any effect on my health because I was never really cold. I dressed in all of my old ski clothes. Still, it must have worked because I never got sick.
Soon, the walks began to take on many aspects of a ritual, much like vesper prayers, or wrapping tefillin. It was cold. It was quiet. We now live in a quiet suburb, in a neighborhood in which many of the people are our age (older), so most of the houses are dark by 10:15. I feel like a…
