Navigating uncharted territory

Almost sleepless night #4.
At 78, one would think I would be able to hear the news, read the newspapers and allow the news to roll over me like it usually does.
One would think.
But this time it's different.
This time I find the news frightening.
Threatening.
Downright terrifying.
If I were a science fiction writer, I would have this virus depicted as a dark cloud of suffering and death.
It starts out slowly, just rising in amorphous gray mists, moving toward earth.
As it nears population centers, though, it turns dark and menacing, descending on the countries with evil intent.
No one knows its name, so they call it COVID-19, probably corona virus ID 19.
No one knows where it came from, although the first cases were reported to be animal to human transference in Wuhan, China.
Some, who should know better, are still referring to as the Chinese virus, as if China invented it and her people are responsible for spreading it.
It taught health care professionals new ways to fight it, not always successfully, and at first it preyed on the elderly.
When I first heard of it, I never associated myself with it.
After all, I never think of myself as elderly.
Now I do.
It took a couple of weeks for it to make it to the US, the west coast first.
People got sick and died, often in such a rapid fashion it left everyone in shock.
Then it struck everywhere.
The dark cloud expanded, gathered speed and fell to the earth in places where human contact made it easy to multiply.

I watched the news and saw this happen.
Still not very concerned, my husband and I talked about our possible role in the devastation and decided to be somewhat proactive.
We stopped going to the casino on Friday nights. Too much closeness, not enough cleanliness.
We made lists of provisions we might need for a lengthy confinement at home and shopped before it was a crazed pasttime.
We didn't hoard.

And then New Jersey started recording new cases. Lots of them.
Some close to home, most to the north where our daughter and her family live.
It seemed time to worry.

Being in self-isolation isn't that hard for us. We both work from home and aren't joiners, so we haven't developed a large group with which we regularly gather.
Still, I envision the dark shadowy cloud swirling from house to house seeking unprotected souls to vanquish.

This will be a long difficult period. No end is in sight.
We need to be immensely grateful to those who put their own lives on the line to care for the sick and dying.
We need to acknowledge that it's up to us to help contain the deadly spread.
And then we have to find a way to achieve some measure of tranquility just to get us through our days.