Spread Kindness, Not the Virus

I accosted two young people today. Well, maybe not accosted, but certainly surprised them, I’m sure.

I’d been sitting at the kitchen table talking with my husband when I saw them on the sidewalk that threads its way past the clubhouse and along the edge of the center courtyard below our apartment deck. I jumped up from the table and bounced onto the deck, waving my arms.

They looked up, only their eyes visible above their masks. I can only imagine what they must have expected from the crazy barefoot old lady in the baggy sweatshirt and jeans with disheveled gray hair badly in need of shearing.

“Thanks for the masks!” I called down to them as they neared our apartment. “Thanks for helping to keep us old people safe.”

I’d just returned from a walk on the trails and through the neighborhood, and although I didn’t encounter many people, I was the only one wearing a mask. It’s only been a few days since the news has been reporting a cautious lightening of the restrictions on social distancing, and already we’ve noticed more people on the streets and in the parks and far fewer masks than we’ve gotten used to seeing.

The masked young couple waved as they passed at a safe distance, and the young man called up to me, “Thanks for keeping us safe, too.” I could “hear” his smile in his voice.

It was a purely spontaneous gesture of gratitude on my part. One I couldn’t have imagined myself even contemplating, much less making, earlier in my life. Yet so simple. A small ripple of acknowledgment and connection in a world that so badly needs it. 

And while I have your attention . . . Please keep the masks on. For all our sakes.