March 2020

 There is nothing new under the sun.

During an epidemic in Kokomo Indiana, when my mom was a child (1923 -2017) she told me how the family was quarantined (measles or chicken/small pox I believe) and my grand-dad, her dad, still had to work, so he lived in the parlor for many weeks. He climbed through the front window after work, slept on the sofa , climbed out in the morning and went to work. He ate at street vendors and bathed and shaved at work. He bought extra clothes for work and laundered them at a neighbor’s. He used one outhouse ... our family used another. They depended on friends to shop for them and those friends and neighbors left food on the front stoop.

It, like now, was difficult. But we, like them, are resilient and strong. We do what we have to do ... and we vent .. and then move on. We, our ancestors, our children will prevail. We may appear weak and spoiled but there is an inner strength that straightens our spine and holds us up ... made up not of our own will but of faith, forged with the love that formed us ... and we will stand when we want to fall ... just for today ... one more day ... every day.