Coronavirus: Family Sequestration
Tears are coming often to my eyes these days when I think about what other people around the world are going through - and how many are experiencing the same shock, fear, excitement, confusion, and interruption. And then adaptation. I also cried when I heard about the people in Italy and Austria who decided to all go out in their front porches and balconies at 6 pm each evening to sing together - if not the same song, then together in time, in lifting their voices or instruments and letting the sound reach out over distances they are not allowed to cover with their bodies. Pretty neat how music/sound lives in the air, and in the ear. It can FLY, like we humans often dream of and wonder about. What’s it like to be a bird or a bee or a bat? Or what’s it like to be a particle in the air, in the waves we create? Even our own bodies are rippling in the waves, we are the waves, and we can fly - our shouts and laughter and songs!
I got really sad yesterday about my 96-year-old grandma Lillian in Hamden, Connecticut, stuck alone in her apartment in the retirement home, no visitors allowed. She has four children living relatively near, many grand-children and great-grandchildren, and normally her apartment sees more visitors than most in the building. So I shouldn’t feel sorry for her. And she’s tough, she would never complain about her own problems. She probably misses her beloved, Irving, more than the family who now aren't allowed to harass her so constantly (except now by phone)! But she’s got so many physical problems, like arthritis and spinal stenosis that makes it so she can’t feel her feet, can’t move her hips or shoulders, can’t really walk or dress herself or go to the bathroom without major effort. Mentally she’s still completely sharp, has a memory 10x better than mine, and as a former librarian and obsessive reader, I’m sure she’ll enjoy reading through hundreds of books, and listening to opera from old cassette tapes. No more of her favorite Saturday afternoon live broadcasts from the Met though… the opera has closed, along with every thing else. Anyway, my kids made her some drawings yesterday, sending love and misses/kisses. They really do miss her. We’re goddamned lucky that they know their great-grandma!
About today’s home-school…. This is Day 2. Theo and Abel, ages 9 and 7, have been so enthusiastic about creating our elaborate schedule, and about keeping it. I hope this lasts, but it’s really hard to tell. What I’m more worried about is my own patience and interest in being the teacher. Right now, for example, I want to write, but it’s their Language Arts time, and if I’m not there actually watching and listening to what they’re doing, they start talking to one another and making jokes. Does it matter? I am kind of rigid… I think it does matter and that if we just let our days slide quickly into being silly and “fooling around”, that this period of weeks or months will become a mess. If the kids had some other useful work to do, like farming or building something, or could play outside all day, that would be ok. That makes me think, maybe we should use this time to get away from the intellectual grooming and just be outside a LOT. We are so so fortunate at this pandemic moment that we have a house and a yard - we have a lot of space to be isolated in! But though I like nature and hiking and planting and stuff like that, I think I like “inside” activities better in general. If I didn’t have to take care of the kids and couldn’t go out, I would be reading, cooking, writing, playing the fiddle, doing my exercises and listening to podcasts all day. Doesn’t that sound ridiculous? Is that what single people are doing now? If they aren’t working from home? Or being sick…
