Three days from now people will be venturing out to celebrate Memorial Day. Some have already started even before stay at home orders expired, risking infection and spreading the contagion wracking the world even as I type this bit of text. My plan is to stay put. For my sake and for the sake of others. I can't imagine myself being able to handle knowledge I contributed to critical illness–or even the death–of someone by going out into public without absolutely having to for the sake of survival. I know such knowledge would eat at me.
The company here is good enough for my tastes. This young mule deer seemed to think I was behind it as I spoke softly to it from the upstairs bedroom window a few evenings ago. I guess my voice was bouncing off of the south slope of the canyon by some trick of evening atmospherics. Unperturbed, it continued grazing across the meadow as darkness enfolded the land, occasionally still looking back for the source of the strange human voice.
Holding my tongue, I let it graze on in silence to the west until she was out of sight. I didn't want to disturb her peace any more than I want to disturb peace of fellow human beings by spreading the virus to them. I wouldn't want to live if such disturbance led to anyone's death.
