For the most part, I believe we have done a pretty good job at maneuvering an unanticipated and completely unwanted worldwide pandemic. By we, I’m including local communities, restaurants, professional businesses, churches, gyms, grocery stores, and most of Johnny and Jane Q. Public. Many businesses have managed to survive. Churches are reopening, and worshipers are carefully returning to worship as a community. Restaurants have found various ways to survive.
Bill and I flew to Denver on Friday from our Arizona home on Southwest Airlines. Both airports — Phoenix’s Sky Harbor and Denver International Airport — were crazy busy. Still, stores and restaurants were social distancing. Servers were wearing masks. Menus were only available by scanning the little black square. People were trying to the best of their ability to social distance in the waiting areas.
And then we got onto the airplane. There were 143 seats on the plane. Sitting in those seats were a total of at least 143 people. (I don’t know how many babies were sitting on parents’ laps.) The flight attendants kept reminding us that every single seat was sold, so don’t avoid middle seats. I was so close to the man sitting to my left on the plane that I accidentally grabbed his leg as I tried to grab the arm rest when the plane hit turbulence. To his credit, the man (who appeared to be a Southwest airline pilot heading home) didn’t even miss a beat. He just kept looking at his phone. By the way, I also grabbed Bill’s leg at the same time. He, too, didn’t seem to notice.
As we landed, the flight attendant, somehow managing to maintain a straight face, said, “As you are leaving the airplane, please remember to socially distance yourself from the person ahead of you.”
I literally laughed out loud at her words. I had been sitting so close to the people in front of me and behind me that I’m pretty sure I’m now on their Christmas list. The pilot sitting to my left and I are practically engaged. There isn’t a mask in the world that could prevent the virus from spreading with the crowd that existed on our airplane that day.
I imagine that 10 or 15 or 20 years from now, we will look back, and second-guess how we responded. Did it really make sense that we had to wear masks as we walked into a restaurant, but could take them off as soon as we sat down? Why can’t I go to my granddaughter’s high school graduation, but I can sit literally inches from others on a plane? Ours is not to reason why.
Still, I’m sighing with relief at the fact that we are making progress at returning to a normal life.
Here is a link to a You Tube video about Corona logic that my sister Jen sent me that makes me laugh every time I watch it….
Nana's Whimsies 
😂