March 20, 2020

In two days the number of confirmed cases in the United States of Covid-19 has doubled, to over 13,000…and that is with limited testing.

 In Virginia we now have 94 confirmed cases. Public schools in Maryland are closed through March 27th, the day of my beloved granddaughter Emma Rose’s 18th birthday…and I will not be there to celebrate with her. 

Two of the Metro stops are closed, to discourage people from gathering under the cherry trees now in full bloom along the Tidal Basin and always a spring-time draw to tourists and to locals alike.

I stand under my pear tree, a foam of white against the blue sky.

March 22, 2020

Yesterday a man in his 60s died from Covid-19—the first death from the virus in Fairfax County where I live. 

One expert called the novel coronavirus “the scythe of death” for those over seventy. I am reminded of Foucault’s pendulum that used to hang in the Smithsonian’s Museum of American History; it inexorably swung back and forth, knocking over the pegs on the floor. Sweep, sweep, sweep. But younger people are dying, too.

March 26, 2020

On Tuesday the governor of Virginia closed schools to the end of the school year and closed non-essential businesses. Restaurants and kindred businesses can sell carry-out food, but otherwise are closed. All indoor recreation sites are closed. Gatherings over ten people are banned, and we must keep six feet away from one another when we are out. Not everyone is heeding these rules.

 Across the country many states are taking the same actions. The man in the White House a week ago encouraged us to stay home, but now he says he thinks we should all go back to work and resume our normal lives very soon, that it would be wonderful to see all the churches packed on Easter Sunday.

My own church is taking hold of Zoom technology to hold meetings and on-line worship. Last night over fifty of us used computers, iPads, and smart phones to join together in singing favorite hymns. Because of the time delay all of our mics were muted, only the music director could be heard singing, but at the end she unmuted our mics for a chorus of “good-bye, good-night, I love you.”  Good-bye, good-night, I love you.

It has been eight days since I left my hilltop or seen anyone.

 In Italy my friend Heather has been confined to her small apartment for the past 19 days. Over 7,500 Italians have died of Covid-19, now surpassing the death toll in China where the virus first appeared. In the United States over 1,000 have died, and the U.S. Surgeon General warned this week that it is going to get much worse. 

There now are over 61,000 confirmed cases in the US, with limited testing. 

March 27, 2020

This evening there are over 101,000 confirmed Covid-19 cases in the US. The Army is building field hospitals in convention centers in New York City and Chicago. 

This evening via Zoom I wished my granddaughter Emma Rose a happy 18th birthday.  Good-night, I love you.