Friday, March 13, 2020

How do I feel about COVAD-19?

Time for a little self-reflection.
The situation is that we are not quite in self-quarantine, but we have been advised to cancel all church gatherings.  The young elders are still doing street-contacting, though.  Right at this moment they have the car so they can do a member contact with a family that lives a 30 minute drive away and don't have transportation to come to church very often.  We actually have several members in that situation.  When the elders get back they are going to have lunch with us .  We are having sloppy-Joes
and pork n beans.   In our self-isolation they are probably our highest risk for catching the virus, but we are NOT going to pass on a chance to feed them, encourage them, and counsel them.
  And this leads to the big question.   We have a free pass to go home if we want to.  Should we do it?

Reasons to answer Yes:

    • We are both over age 60, and are thus in the high-risk group.  Most of the COVID-19 deaths are among our age group.
    • I particularly seem to catch every little cold or flu that appears.
Reasons to answer No:
    • We have just as high a risk of exposure to the virus at home as we do here.  Croatia is relatively untouched at the moment, but since it is a pandemic, it will sweep to almost all cities.
    • When we applied to go on a mission, we discussed the fact that we could die while gone.  We accepted the eternal viewpoint and decided that it makes no difference in the eternity whether we die now or later.  We arranged our estate to support this view.  Our children are all grown up and are prospering.
    • We have settled in fairly well now, and we have learned to love these people.   They are lovely people.  Drivers let you in when you get trapped in the wrong lane.  They stop what they're doing when they see us bumbling around in confusion and offer help.  They have many, many delightful attributes.
    • We LIKE living here.  It is quiet (except for one neighbor's yapping dog) and peaceful.  Everybody walks, so it is safe to go out and wander around, shopping, sightseeing, enjoying the parks, and so forth.  There are drug problems, but it isn't obvious at all.  Everybody is alert and going about their business, even if it is just holding down a chair at one of the many caffe shops along the streets.
    • The food is fantastic.  We have barely scratched the surface, but we have had some amazing meals, and never a bad one.  I even got bold and had a stew-like dish with nautilus meat.  It was delicious!  It did, however, have the nautilus's ink in the stew, so I got black on my face with every bite, and soon my napkin was splashed with black smears.  But it was rich and thoroughly enjoyable.  I managed to keep the ink off my white shirt and tie, so that was miraculous.  Also, there are bakeries on every corner and the bread is great!  They have a lot of filled pastries, but seldom with fruit filling.  It is more commonly filled with meat, sweet nuts, mushroom, or cheese.  We have had these pastries for lunch several times, and even though we don't always know what we are ordering, we always enjoy it.

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