Isolation

March 2020. This is the strangest time that any of us has ever lived in. There are, of course, the fears of the unknown––pretty much everything about the virus that has gripped us in this pandemic is unknown––but worse than that (for everyone but perhaps the extreme introverts!) is being cut off from one’s family and friends. Some of us are profoundly fortunate to live where we can get outside whenever we want, and even join up with friends at a safe distance outside. But some can’t get out. I think of my friend Maura who at the age of 90 is being so careful not to expose herself to the virus, and this means that she is homebound in her small apartment, only connected to her family and friends by telephone or email. I’m not sure she knows how to use Zoom, which so many of us are now using. How hard to face another month of this isolation! But Maura is ever-cheerful with her lot. She’s happy with her books and limiting her time watching the news, and spending much time on her telephone talking with loved ones.

I am nearly finished reading an amazing novel titled The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern. I highly recommend it for escape reading. It is actually more like a game, not using visual images but rather text, to draw the reader into an intricate plot with multiple ending possibilities. Near the end the reader’s avatar, Zachary Ezra Rawlins, stands before multiple doors knowing that he has to choose one, but after a moment, on a hunch, he walks some distance away and finds a door that no one would see unless one had followed a wild hunch and gone looking for it, and that brings him to the ending of the story––perhaps. Perhaps there is no ending. I haven’t finished the book yet, but I suspect the ending will be open, infinitely possible.

I would like to do that with a sequel to Raven, Tell A Story, but I haven’t been able to start yet. I blame the times and my excess of nervous energy preventing me from sitting down for any length of time. But I should get on with it. Meanwhile, I send my thoughts and prayers out to everyone in this world of ours, every one of us facing the same fears and challenges at this moment. May we all be well, and may all be well, and may we unite in this rather than divide.