Putting COVID-19 into the Box(es)
These current months of pandemic life, from the mundane necessity of hand-washing to the uncertainty, the speculation, the tightening and loosening of restrictions, the confusion, have something in common with the time in my life as a caregiver. Future looms and clouds. How do we sort through this — what is the path?
Days of shock
My 51st year was one of caregiving my spouse 24/7 through his rapid form of ALS. Those months began with hours and days of shock, and then months that brought Change with each week. The change created its own rhythm, and part of getting through that time was learning the workings of that rhythm, and figuring out how to sort through.
Now days tick by. Slowly. Many days I have managed to write my 1000 words a day; that’s my job. But there are–of course–other demands on my time. And as I was standing outside my corner grocery store, Union Market, in a lineup that did not look like a line, waiting for my turn to be one of two people inside, a thought occurred to me.
Panic
This time we are going through, while very different from my time of caregiving, shares some commonalities. In that time of crisis, I found that I needed to create mental boxes to place pieces of the reality, and to differentiate between what needs to be considered or responded to…
