
I looked up the word confounded just now. I had started thinking about the fact that we are once again in a new month and still the Coronavirus hangs on. Last night we got word that a friend died of a massive heart attack. She was someone who had seen the value of what we do at the Spiritual Center and dived into our mission with a generosity and an energy that was virtually unparalleled. We have missed seeing her this season because of the Coronavirus. She was 63 years old.
I had a phone conversation yesterday with someone who knows me better than almost anyone. Her birthday is today and I would dearly love to party with her but my smiles would have to be behind a mask and any birthday hug virtual. A bit of a disappointment. Much of our conversation yesterday was about our disappointment with people, even some of former colleagues and long-time co-workers, who who do not deem it necessary to wear a mask and observe what we have come to know as “social distancing.” We are both at a loss to understand behavior that is dangerous to our health.
To confound means to puzzle, to confuse right and wrong, to make something worse, to perplex. That is the state we are in. To wear a mask is inconvenient, even uncomfortable at times. The difference between that and risking an infection that could cause serious illness or even death – for ourselves or a loved one or both – is just confounding. I fear I will never understand it.