May 21, 2020

 Dear Tristessa,

    If you just sat here and looked out the window it looks like any normal spring day in May.  Breezy and Sunny even warm.  If you look in the window you see a woman wearing a mask.  You see everyone wearing masks that cover their mouths.  Since March we have been experiencing a Pandemic. The virus is called Covid-19 or the "Corona Virus".  Many people have been affected, many people have died,  many people call it a hoax.  It seems until it affects someone you know in the first degree of your circle it is not real.  The country did a half- assed job of shutting down to stop the spread.  With Trump in charge you can't expect much better.  If only we had a real president.  The future is  so uncertain.  Nothing is normal anymore and everything seems so surreal almost dystopian.

   No one is emotionally stable anymore.  I am sitting hear on the verge of tears because I received an email from Rhiannon's art teacher about a virtual awards ceremony where she is to receive an art award.  I want to see her receive the award.   We missed out on her receiving a silver key from the National Honor Society for the Arts at Kutztown because of this virus.  Now this.   No real graduation.  We don't even know if she will be able to start college on time normally.  This is all so fucked up.

   In so many ways we are blessed.  No one in our family is sick.  We are all working and able to pay the bills.  So many are out of work and not able to get unemployment or waiting to get unemployment relying on food banks and social services to hang on to their homes and to be able to have food.  Because I have enough I have been doing this silly little game.  When someone looks like they are having a hard time coping due to Covid-19  I ask them what their favorite nut is and if they give me their address I send them a surprise.

      

    It is both sad and funny how paranoid everyone is about sharing their address.  They want to verify it is me.  Ask so many questions that I tell them what I am up to and ruin the surprise.  Maybe I am just too trusting.

Marci Karess 

Good communication is just as stimulating as black coffee, and just as hard to sleep after. - Anne Morrow Lindburgh