I read an article this morning which opines that hanging out while 6 feet apart isn't coronavirus social distancing and this gave me pause for thought.
People are still going to the local city parks, which have only closed the play structures and water fountains with yellow caution tape (picture owned by Berkeleyside).
Their kids are playing ball, their dogs running around, they are running laps, doing yoga and sitting on benches reading newspapers. Some people cluster in their familial groups, sitting on blankets, playing guitars. They are in fact staying six feet or further from other people. My neighbors are driving over to Marin County regularly to walk and shop over there. I've seen a few contacts I know who are complaining about not being able to walk their dogs off-leash, because other people aren't behaving themselves, but they are. Well howdy, people -- everyone else wants to do that, too! Unless you have a special access badge, why is it you think you should even have some free-range out there? It's because a lot of people are responsibly staying at home. Why aren't you? On the other hand, if everyone went to the parks to run their dogs around and exercise their kids and if all of us stayed 10 feet from each other... well you see the problem there. It's not possible for all of us to use the parks safely. Ha, maybe a Lottery should be implemented. Maybe Shirley Jackson was on to something there.
The concept of social distancing isn't about your day to day life, people. It's about how to conduct yourself when you are out doing essential business, like at the pharmacy, grocery store or your local cannabis club (which by the way, I highly highly recommend for anxiety amelioration, and many of them do delivery for a minimum purchase).
Social distancing does not mean we are okay to gather in public and simply distance ourselves. No, that's why we're on a Stay at Home order. Staying at home means staying at home. Not having a block party where everyone on the block gathers but everyone is 20 feet apart. Not having tailgates, like I did last week before considering this. We don't get to pick and choose what safety elements to implement and exactly when those rules apply. Either we do this thing or we don't. It's pretty simple.
I am a later convert to this concept, honestly as I started visualizing when large groups of people gather anywhere how much spread of anything coming out of their mouths there is. You cough or sneeze... and you spread your germs to someone or some thing up to six meters away, which is almost 20 feet. In our individualistic society, just reframe that as when someone else exhales, sneezes or coughs you will be the unwitting recipient of their out-spray. Obviously, the closer we are in proximity to one another, the more rampant our germ spread, but my point remains.
As of March 27th (it is now the 29th), there were 16 lab-confirmed cases of Covid19 here in Berkeley. Actually this is what it looks like. I should have drawn this in landscape, obviously.
So here are, let's have a distance block party, go take our kids to the park for some "fresh air" and a game of ball with the other social distancers.
Here's a story my mom told me years ago about going stir crazy. When I was a baby, mom put me down for a nap in my crib and would take that quiet time to run down the street and put some laundry in at the coin-op and would do a quick load while I was sleeping. She timed it so she knew how long she could safely be gone before I would awaken.
She saw a therapist during this time and told the therapist that she was getting some down time while also getting her laundry done. Her therapist replied, "would it be worth it if you went home and something terrible had happened to Heather?" My mom never did it again, because no, it was not worth the risk.
I pose this same question to you people: Is your time at the park with your kid, or your dogs with the other dog people staying a "safe distance", or your girl/boyfriend's health worth it when you get home from your social distancing time away? I know a few people who are evidently visiting other homes with a variety of excuses as to why it is okay to do so. I am not saying it's not okay. I am saying this is your life and the lives of your loved ones that are at risk.
Is it worth the risk?
Yesterday, as my son's concern for my mental health trebled on the scale of "mom, it's okay" to "mom, ARE YOU OKAY?", he offered to come with all safety gear on to visit me (ie check on me). I ruminated over this and lost some sleep because God all I want is to see him in person and feel him and listen to his heartbeat as I hug him.
And I told him that I cannot be that selfish and I am okay and no, I do not want him to visit. It is not worth the risk to my baby.
I am not without guilt in being lax in some areas. The millennial who rents a room from me is practically Howard Hughes level self-righteous about this specific topic, and I can't tell if he actually cares about community health or he's just paranoid. On the other hand, he seems to have zero problems with incoming mail, cardboard delivery boxes and things like that. Like everyone else, he has a measure of fluidity in what lowering infection potential is, too. I've been spraying the incoming mail with Lysol, because it's troubling me that I can hear the mail carrier coughing the last couple of days.
That's what I have for now. Take this into consideration. We're all lonely. Some of us more than others, but we will get through this. People have suffered worse than being on lockdown in their homes. We can do this.
** steps off soapbox**
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