My wife and I ventured out for supplies. We visited a few different places, all the
while, masked and gloved. Whilst we were
out, I took some pictures of what life is like out there now during quarantine. We started by filling up our tank at BJs. Both the gas station attendant and I were
masked and gloved. We dropped off some
books that we were getting rid of at the Better World Books bin next to
the Regal Theater in Vineland and, in an empty parking lot, I took a picture of the marquee.
The marque reads, “CLOSED FOR NOW – STAY TUNED”, with the
“Y” in ‘stay’ hanging askew. It will be
interesting to see how theaters, which were struggling before the appearance of
COVID-19, will fare in the new normal on the other side of this.
Our journey of re-supplying then took us to Taco Bell,
which is drive through or delivery only now.
We chose Taco Bell because, to date, they are the chain who has best
adapted to life in quarantine.
They take your order, you drive up to the window, the gloved
and masked server holds out the debit card reader, the customer inserts or
swipes their card so no there is no physical contact with Taco Bell and the customer
at all. The card reader goes away, and
the Taco Bell employee returns with your order inside a plastic receptacle—plastic
box—drink holder, which the customer grabs, and takes away. This is the most efficient, sanitary method
of delivery that I have seen put in play in the world of drive-through cuisine. It beats Wendy’s & McDonald's gloved hands
down. We made certain to thank the Taco
Bell worker for being there.
After chowing down on our Taco Bell in a parking lot, we
headed over to Aldi. There was a line of
people waiting to get into the store that stretched down the side of the
building.
“I don’t know, should we just go to Shoprite?” I asked my
wife.
“I don’t know,” she said. “Should we be taking pictures
of people? Someone’s going to kick your
ass.”
“No, they’re not,” I said. “They’d have to get out of
line.”
As it turns out, that ALDI line was the line that we got
into next.
Going into the store, ALDI does all they can to reduce
transmission of COVID-19. There is a masked
and gloved employee up front who asks you if you need a cart or not. If you do then, with Lysol, she wipes down
the handle and the two plastic flaps that are designed for baby’s butts and rolls
it towards you for use. The employee
then counts who enters and who leaves, thus balancing the number of people who
are in the store at one time.
After our trip to ALDI, we had a few items that we needed
so we visited our Shoprite. My wife went after the list and I waited in a small, socially
distanced line (6-feet away between customers) for my turn and when it was my
turn, I asked to purchase two lottery tickets, which I did so with quarters
left from laundry day. One could make a
compelling argument that I am throwing good quarters away by playing the
lottery. That it is a hidden tax and
that the odds are astronomically against winning. One would be correct on all these points. I cannot argue one of them. My only defense against such points is to
offer up Doctor Schrödinger and his cat.
COVID-19 has changed the lottery, as well. The Powerball has cut its payout in half,
since not as many people are playing these days. There are more important matters at
hand. Yet, there I was. It’s more like Schrödinger’s lottery.
“Thank you for being here.” I told the lady behind the
counter. We have seen each other before,
but we have never been properly introduced, so we don’t know each other’s
names. We know each other because we are
part of the same community, whether we are in a pandemic or not. “You are holding together ‘normalcy’,
whatever that was.” I said.
She smiled and asked, “How are you doing during all this?”
“Oh, fine, I suppose.
How about you?”
“Well…I miss my family.” She said. Immediately, I felt horrible for asking the
question. At least in some way work is a
respite for this woman for the simple reason she is busy helping others and
keeping everything afloat. She’s so busy
at it that she has time to not think about the family that she can’t see due to
the self-quarantine rules. She looked
away, suddenly reminded. I am an ass.
“Much love.” I said to her putting my hands together and
bowing—hoping against hope that she gets that chance to see her family soon. “…Thank you.”
Thank you, indeed.
If it weren’t for her and people like her—like all of the people that we
had social distanced, gloved, and masked contact with today—everything shuts
down. Seriously. Essential workers have been carrying the early
birth-pangs of whatever the new normal is going to look like on their shoulders
while trying to maintain what the old normal was. They put everything on the line to keep
things moving forward. We owe a debt to
the essential worker. They have kept the
world going just by showing up to work. Spoilers—they
always have, even without the threat of COVID-19.
There will be changes ahead. Major changes. Sweeping social and economic ones and that’s
okay. Change is how progress is made. I hope that on the other side of this once
the quarantine is lifted and the vaccination is discovered that the reconciliation
between the old world—what was and the new world—what it will be, is more
enlightened. There is historical
evidence to suggest that this may be the case.
After the black plague came the renaissance—200 plus years of reason,
science, thinking, art, and creativity that ushered in the modern era. After COVID-19? We are due for an age of enlightenment. An age where essential workers make a fair
wage, where healthcare is no longer a business, where scientists and experts
are heeded, where reason is tempered with kindness, where hope for a better tomorrow
is feasible for ALL regardless of circumstance, where we shift our priorities from ourselves to others. Can you imagine such a future? A
future that we would be proud to hand over to our children. What a future this New Renaissance would
be. I hope I live to see it all come to pass.
Until such time, stay home, stay safe, stay healthy.
The curve is flattening so keep on keeping on.
