The Alchemy of Tension

I last saw my family in early March 2020. I had flown to North Carolina from my home in Oregon to visit my brother, sister-in-law, and new baby niece. My mom and dad each joined me during different parts of the trip. Back then, there were stories of a new illness wreaking havoc in a far corner of the globe, but it felt like an abstraction — too distant to impact my life. I brought hand sanitizer on the plane and smirked at the one passenger wearing a surgical mask. Less than 24 hours after I returned home, I came down with a fever.

The next morning, Governor Kate Brown brought Oregon’s economy to an abrupt halt. The pandemic was no longer just a blurb in the international news section; it was here. In response, Brown issued a stay-at-home order to slow the spread of COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus. Her move suspended routine life for Oregonians, as if she’d pressed pause on a remote control.

Days later, after my fever had given way to what felt like a head cold, Gov. Brown made another big decision: she shipped nearly 20 percent of the state’s stockpile of ventilators to New York. At the time, Oregon had a limited supply of the lifesaving breathing machines and the fewest hospital beds per capita in the nation. That same week, I lost my sense of smell.

Many residents of the Beaver State were proud of Brown for reaching out to help…