Nobody who is experiencing the spring of 2020 is likely to forget it. It started with a dangerous virus which for weeks had felt far away becoming, suddenly, very local. The early stages of denial that something like this could ever happen here in the Southeast abruptly gave way to an uncomfortable, mercifully brief transition period with relentless handwashing, dwindling supplies of hand sanitizer, and the realization that we touch our faces much more often than necessary, and it’s hard to stop. For a week, maybe ten days, after cases of the virus started appearing in our own cities in early March, people were still eating at restaurants and having cocktail parties, albeit nervously. The standard greeting was an elbow bump, and most conversations were founded upon some version of, “So, I’m wondering, are we overreacting? Or are we not nearly worried enough?”
