The pandemic has definitely created a strange and scary new world. You never realize how much humans rely on facial cues, especially the mouth, until everyone around you is wearing a mask. Eyes tell a lot but the mouth finishes the sentence.
Pamela and I have been carefully quarantining ourselves. When we must go out for groceries we wear mask and gloves and then slather ourselves in hand sanitizer when we return to our vehicle. I'm in very good health, still climbing mountains, but I am 74 years old. I won't deny I'm frightened to go out. Over the past seven years I've learned that the farther away from so-called civilization I am, the more relaxed and the happier I am. To add the threat of a viral death makes me even less anxious to wander out into the human infested world.
We've ended up riding out the pandemic in western Kentucky. We are two widowers who got together and have seven children and eleven grandchildren between us. The oldest grandchild is twenty-nine and the youngest isn't quite two. This is as close as possible to a central location to our family. Our adopted home is northwest Montana, in the Rocky Mountains, where we work as volunteers for the National Park Service from May 1 to the end of September. We fell in love with the desert and winter in southwest US, visiting family in fall and spring. While I'm horribly homesick for the west and being a nomad, this has been a good place to be quarantined. Kentucky governor, Andy Bershears, has done a good job.
One of our children and his wife were facing a situation where they needed help with child care for their baby. They had been self-isolated, working from home, for almost 90 days. We had been practicing self-isolation for 89 days and felt that it would be safe for Pamela to go help for a few days.
It was fine until the day she was to come home. The baby complained of a sore throat and was running a fever. Before 2020 we would have been concerned, had the child treated and gone on with life. Not now! Panic. Terror. At least that's how I felt.
Many times I've found myself face to face with a bear without fear or panic. That's because I know bears and I know what to expect and how to act. Even the ever-predatory mountain lion doesn't elicit the gut-wrenching fear that I felt when I got the news. This type of fear and panic can be deadly in the wilderness.
After regaining my composure, we decided that Pamela should stay there until at least Friday by which time they should know if the baby has Covid-19.
Our "home" is a twenty-one foot 1996 Roadtrek we call Mr. Spock. If we must be isolated from each other, I could take Mr. Spock and disappear into the backcountry of nearby Land Between the Lakes. We are capable of living off the grid in Mr Spock for 14-18 days. Despite the fact that I'd much rather be out in the backcountry; preferably the western wilderness; I hate the idea of leaving without Pamela.
At this point in time it appears that the baby does not have Covid-19 and that quarantine/separation won't be necessary, but that isn't the final determination. We face at least another twenty-four hours.
I had never thought of what it would feel like to be told that a family member might have a deadly virus. Our oldest grandson got sick early on in the pandemic. That threw us all into a terrified panic, but they were able to relatively quickly confirm that it was not Covid-19. Being a teenager he was able to cooperate in his care and didn't require a babysitter or hands-on care. Nevertheless the feeling of helplessness was still there.
We face a strange and scary new world. Pamela is a retired biology professor and, while working in an animal pathology lab some years ago, discovered a new disease. She and other experts feel that the pandemic is far from over. Could we be living like this for many months, or even years? Are we being forced into a whole new social paradigm based upon social distancing? Could we be partially, or even totally, responsible because for centuries we have worked to distance ourself from the fact that we are animals and a part of nature thereby removing and/or reducing natural immunities? Perhaps Covid-19 is our Dutch Elm disease or our White Nose Syndrome (i) capable of dramatically reducing or even eradicating our species. We just don't know. The best we can hope for is a highly qualified and well documented guess.
These are indeed strange and scary times. We live in a time when we must stop blaming each other for everything and anything that goes wrong. We must throw off the capitalistic "me first" attitude and start truly working together. We must show compassion for all living things. We must give up the religious teaching of human superiority and accept our place in nature so that we can again understand and live as a part of nature. We must re-learn so many things which we purposely gave up to become a high-tech society.
These are strange and scary times. Will we be frozen by fear and eradicated by ignorance, or will we learn and grow as species?
FOOTNOTE
(i) Here are links if you are not familiar with Dutch Elm Disease or White Nose Syndrome. The Dutch Elm Disease all but eradicated the American Elm while the White Nose Syndrome is still killing bats across the US and Canada.
Dutch Elm Disease: https://extension.umn.edu/plant-diseases/dutch-elm-disease
White Nose Syndrome.
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