Social Distancing -- Day Six

My thoughts have oscillated between denial, dread, and wonder at the changes wrought by the pandemic. Beneath those thoughts, when all clears for just a moment, is the awareness that this virus might kill me or others I know. Following that thought is the corollary of how to live the days I have if they are only a few. That sobering realization is more than I stand, so I quickly change channels to something more palatable. I have not yet really made the mental transition to being in quarantine. I still roll out the habits of distraction -- going out to eat, dawdling at coffee shop, working out, driving to get groceries. This helps time pass, but I know I need to look this thing in the face and act accordingly. So I self-isolate, aware that I am not alone in the project. The fact of trying to change the behavior of an entire country's worth of people sits heavily with me. The enormity of social behavioral shift is not unlike that of trying to do u-turn with an oil tanker. They don't just turn on a dime. Neither do people. Yet, I and they are doing it, sort of. We'll see what the numbers say... Two weeks from now -- once the real casualties begin to add up -- the ones who are most cavalier about distancing will be out enforcing the practice with the vehemence of their fists. We'll see.We'll see whose turn it is when the virus comes knocking.