Self-Isolation Day #51

Sunday, Self-Isolation Day #51

We request continued prayers for my husband's mother D. She has been sick with COVID-19 for about five weeks (now negative, but still sick), alone in the hospital for a month, and is now on her second stretch of being on a ventilator in order to give her lungs support for longer while they heal.

Today we got to attend a Communion Service Outside of Mass again, thanks to our very generous diocese and bishop. Most of the parishes are running Communion Services all day Sundays for groups capped at ten. Each week, the arrangement has been a bit different: the change this week was the usher checking each person's temperature before we entered.

Afterward, our family stayed to watch the live stream Mass in the parking lot, which is the same thing Chris did last week. For our spiritual health, we find that dressing up matters; sitting, standing, and kneeling matters; proximity to the church actually matters. I appreciated seeing a like-minded young couple attending Mass by standing immediately outside of the closed wooden doors to the church for the entire 90 minutes of Mass.

Our pastor's homily was particularly excellent today: he made the point that, whatever you think of this lockdown (you think it an overreaction versus you think it prudent and that it should continue), these mandates are causing us to lose our humanity. His homily starts below at the 32-minute mark and is worthwhile listening.

We came home and very much enjoyed having an outdoor visit! One other family came over and we all sat in the front yard talking. All four adults enjoyed the adult conversation. The weather was glorious and the humanity was glorious.

John stayed up late last night making his first cheesecake, which we enjoyed tonight for Sunday dessert.

It was delicious, light, and with nary a lump. Good job, John!

Lastly, congratulations are in order for our girls who had auditioned for the Youth Orchestras of Charlotte. Margaret (9) was accepted for her first year in the beginner's orchestra, Sinfonia Strings, and Mary (11) was moved up after two years into the mid-level orchestra, Preparatory Orchestra. They have worked so hard to get here! (I was upstairs running bedtime routine when they read the email getting the news and they screamed so loudly that I raced downstairs, thinking someone was injured.)

Bonus Reading for Posterity:

• I think we are up to something like 30 million unemployed in this country now, and today I read that 700,000 of those alone are in the normally vibrant, burgeoning city of Charlotte I live in. (Unemployment Kills: The Longer Lockdowns Last, the Worse It Will Get.)
• Our Dress Rehearsal For A Police State
• Even the mainstream is now readily admitting how much they underestimated asymptomatic cases, which is another way of saying how much they overestimated the fatality rate of this virus. (Dr. Birx: ‘We Underestimated Very Early On The Number Of Asymptomatic Cases’.)
• They Told Us Lockdowns Were About Flattening the Curve. They Lied.