Quarantine Diary #18 3/31/2020

This morning I’m “hosting” coffee with friends via Zoom and I’m kinda nervous about if it will work. 

My congregation has been having virtual coffee hours; it’s such a happy thing to see friends’ faces. Because my church “made” us do this I sort of see how it works and so, why not try with others? During this time any organization that forces us to try options to stay connected - that’s mission accomplished right there.  (So thanks Dave and Dennis and whomever else got this going.)

In my early 20’s I was friends with Julie Molloy-Good. I can still hear her asking, “How hard can it be?”

Guess what? It was pretty easy! I googled Zoom the other night and eventually signed up and accidentally started a meeting right then, with Len, in the same room. Bumpy start but no one got hurt. These companies don’t make money if their products are complicated. They count on folks like us to try their products.

It was a delight to have coffee with pals! One of them pulled a beautiful streusel coffee cake out of the oven while we were talking. That was cruel.

My daughter and grandkids also facetimed with me this morning. They were all on the kitchen floor while the baby crawled. At one point my daughter left the phone on the floor in order to get something from a kitchen cupboard. I was laughing because all I could see were the kitchen lights … until suddenly a big round head chugged into view and there was the baby’s smiley face was looking down at me.    

So I’m thinking today about “learning curves.” Children don’t worry about whether they will be able to do something or not. Our baby boy isn’t trying to crawl well or proficiently. Just put him on the floor and away he goes. 

But when I think about “hosting a zoom meeting” I am so aware I might screw up and careen right off the learning curve into the weeds. It’s easy to anxious about activities that are dependent on a computer, but really, what’s the problem? It’s just a learning curve. We have to pay attention for a while. We have to try and maybe try again. We have to ask Google questions and then WikiHow and if that doesn’t work, ask Len.

So that’s what I have to say about Learning Curves during Quarantine. Don’t worry so much about what you don’t know. Be interested in what you are trying to learn.

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PS: The smarty-pants three-year-old ended todays’ conversation with, “Have to let you go now, Grandma. Love you!”

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Did you see that statistics show that this quarantine, when strictly observed (no restaurants, church, bars) is working? Wow! We have weeks and months ahead of us, but maybe we will get through.

I also read that it it’s likely that 11 million people in Pacific Rim nations will fall into deep poverty because of the way this is affecting the worlds’ economy. People who are okay now but won't be. I can’t take in how much suffering has, is, and will crater the lives of our fellow humans.

Those of us with shelter and time and enough income on which to live – how will we respond?

What are you thinking of changing?

I’m going to start by tipping more and using Amazon less.

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More daily flower mandalas created by my niece Susan. You can follow her on Instagram at Susanlawrence954.  For some reason, my computer doesn't want to do very many photos today, so there will be more tomorrow...