Love in the Times of Coronavirus

In these times of lockdowns, curfews and social distancing, how adaptable we’re proving to be. Our writing group meets as usual on Thursday mornings, via the Zoom application. 

    Zoom also allows me to exercise three times a week with my Pilates group and our Cuban professor, Alberto. Little by little, I’m creating a home schedule to inject a level of normalcy into my life. On the non-Pilates days, I do exercises on my own. I signed up for a writing course for times of “Uncertainty.” I write. I read voraciously, while my husband cycles furiously upstairs on his stationary bike.

            Though my husband is semi-retired, we usually do not spend much time together during the day, each with our own activities. Now we have fallen into a routine, quite different from when our daily cleaning lady was coming. We make the bed together. I cook, he sets the table and washes the dishes. Yesterday, before he showered, I handed him a squirt bottle of bathroom cleaner and a rag and asked him to clean the shower when he finished. After I finished vacuuming and complained that my back ached, he said he could do that next time. Words I never thought I’d hear! He’s getting a sense of what it takes to keep up a house. We have a ritual these days of watching a Netflix series called “Trapped” set in Iceland. The landscape – white and many shades of grey – lurks, looms (it’s a murder mystery), fascinates and amazes with its unusual beauty.

Another ritual, now more than ever, is watching the news together. The latest news flash was a welcome distraction to us, both animal lovers. Yesterday at 5:30 a.m. a wild puma visited the empty city streets of several neighborhoods, most likely having wandered from the foothills. He looked young (big paws) and disoriented. Animal experts from the zoo were able to sedate him and transport him to the zoo, where, we were glad to hear, he was declared to be in good health and soon to be released back into the wild. Amazingly, another puma was sighted today in another residential neighborhood!

 Now I fantasize a futuristic scene (not too far into the future), the city in total lockdown being visited by an assortment of wild animals: guanacos, foxes, more pumas, condors, ferrets, living in harmony with the human inhabitants. If only we could learn how to tread this earth softly. Are we willing to change our ways?