It’s interesting how much we think about contagion now. I think about it when I press the button to cross the street, touch the handle of a donation bin as I drop a bag of clothing inside, touch anything. I even thought about whether I needed gloves to handle the grocery bags that were loaded into our car yesterday. (In the end, I did put on gloves. Mark and the youngest unloaded them and washed their hands afterwards.)
On Twitter I mentioned picking up garbage while on our daily walk outdoors. I thought this was such a productive, community-minded thing to do. In response I got a couple of warnings about catching something. I seriously doubt that there is coronavirus lurking on the Tim Horton’s cup that was buried under four feet of snow all winter. Besides, if/when I pick up litter I would wear gardening gloves and use our garbage-picking claw anyway.
Another time I talked about resurrecting the lost art of letter-writing. Again, people responded with trepidation. For the record, postage stamps are self-adhesive now. But the envelopes? Maybe postcards are safer.
Another time I wrote about dropping books off at a mini-library. You know the ones that people put on their front lawns, for neighbours to take a book or leave a book? Most people thought this was a bad idea.
The coronavirus story is changing on an hourly basis, so it’s hard to be confident about how we move around in the world right now. But maybe it’s better to be safe than sorry, right?
