Category Archives: Faith

7 Quick Takes: Living In The Midst of “The Walking Dead” Edition

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7 Quick Takes

This blog’s official troll accused me of exaggerating and going to extremes after reading one of my posts where I called them out for some dangerous opinions they hold regarding some infectious diseases. It’s too bad that science backs me up and disproves what they have to say.

Sucks to be you, Elena.

Oh… I also cite REAL ACCURATE SOURCES WITH REAL ACCURATE NUMBERS in this post. Click on by me if you want to believe the hysteria in the media.

— 1 —

The title. Some of you know that I live in western Washington. This part of the state is where all the COVID-19 cases are. (There aren’t any west of Grant or Kittitas counties, so it is currently really just in the western 1/2-2/3 of the state.) King County is the most populous county in the state and has the largest city, Seattle. Thus, this is where the bulk of the cases are. We have the highest number of cases in the country (568) as well as the highest death toll (37). With all K-12 schools having to switch to remote learning for 6+ weeks, the colleges that are having to go to distance learning for the rest of the year, and all the restrictions on public events, it seems like we’re in the midst of an episode of “The Walking Dead” here.

— 2 —

Where to get your information. There is a lot of misinformation out there, and the president isn’t helping with this. (For those who are wondering what I’m talking about, he has made some off-the-cuff remarks that contradict what the CDC and others run by medical professionals have said about it.) Here’s a list of places to go for accurate information:

–World Health Organization
–CDC
-Your state’s department of health/board of health (mine)
-Your county’s board of health/department of health (mine)

All of the above have medical professionals who specialize in infectious diseases reporting on this and making recommendations.

— 3 —

The math on this. It has been reported that COVID-19 is ten times more deadly than the seasonal flu. This is correct. The seasonal flu has a fatality rate of around 0.1% (1 out of 1,000) people. COVID-19’s fatality rate is around 1% (1 in 100 people). It is skewed a little bit here in Washington state because most of the fatal cases are from nursing homes, one specific nursing home in particular.

For more data on this in a beautiful and easy-to-follow format, click here.

— 4 —

How to protect yourself. This might come as a surprise, but the easiest way to protect your self is…

WASH YOUR FREAKING HANDS.

Wash them for at least 20 seconds with soap. Wash them like you just finished eating Thai food with your hands and you need to remove your contacts. Wash them like you just shook hands with the politician you hate most. Say a Hail Mary while you wash your hands. Wash them when you get back to your house after being out in public.

If you need something to say or sing while washing them other than “Happy Birthday”, you can make your own hand-washing poster using this site. Here is one with part of “Jabberwocky” by Lewis Carroll. There’s also a list of hymns you can sing.

Wash your hands Jabberwocky-style.
Praise the Lord and wash your hands.

Also, stay home if you’re sick and don’t touch your face.

— 5 —

Telecommuting. My college had to close down all sites this week for disinfection after a positive case at a nursing home where CNA students and instructors were doing clinicals. (The staff and students were on campus last week, so the school legally needed to neutralize the risk.) Cue everything including tutoring having to be switched up to remote instruction this week! I’ve been tutoring over Zoom since yesterday, and it’s kind of a cool way to do all of this. My student(s) can share their screen with me, which makes it a whole lot easier for me to point out errors and get “down and dirty” with my Accounting students who work through an online application.

Minion even decided to “help” yesterday, so I was cuddling him during my one-on-one session with a student. Silly panther!

— 6 —

Social distancing. I completely understand the need for social distancing. We stand to overwhelm our health care system unless we flatten the curve in terms of risk. Still, it’s hard to have so many things like church cancelled. Physical touch isn’t even my primary love language, and I’m missing being hugged.

Nadia Bolz-Weber had a really good take on this:

Pandemic of disappointment.

— 7 —

Faith in the time of COVID-19. If you’re like me, Sunday worship/Mass has been cancelled diocese-wide. My church is coming up with ways to livestream worship and post the basics on our website, but for the Catholics out there who are in dioceses like the Archdiocese of Seattle where everything is cancelled, here are some options courtesy of my local Blessed is She folks:

Daily TV Mass
Act of Spiritual Communion

I used to watch a lot of Heart of the Nation when we lived in Galt and going to church with Daniel was a no-go for reasons.

The archbishop of Seattle is also livestreaming Mass on Sunday at 10 a.m. PDT. Your local dioceses might have similar options.

For more Quick Takes, visit Kelly at This Ain’t The Lyceum.

Lenten Check-In #1

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We’re about a quarter of the way through Lent. I’m doing well at keeping a pesco-vegetarian diet (I’m not even taking Sundays off because I’ve always felt that was kind of a cop-out), my posts here are late but I’ve managed to post almost every day, and I end up kneeling consistently most mornings and a lot of evenings.

It’s getting extra Lenten around here because of the COVID-19 cases. We have 267 cases in Washington state as of this moment and it’s all mostly in western Washington. We have one case in Skagit County where I am, and my employer has closed all campuses for the week because of some students and staff being on campus last week after doing clinicals at a nursing home where there are now two positive cases of it. The one case in Skagit County is a woman in her 40’s and I’m hoping it isn’t any of my students, although I’d be most likely notified if it was. Thankfully, my boss and her counterpart on the Whidbey Island campus came up with contingency plans so that those who were willing could continue to work remotely.

In the midst of this, all midweek Lenten stuff is being postponed until after Easter at my church, no laity is receiving the Cup, offerings are being put in plates on the way up to Communion to keep us from passing plates (and passing germs), there is no physical contact during the Peace, and any coffee hour stuff is having to be done according to very stringent regulations. I feel like a brat because I’m feeling irrated at being inconvenienced by all the precautions when people are actually DYING of it.

*sighs*

Seriously, Catholic Twitter?

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A friend told me about this Twitter thread yesterday in which some idiot was going off on people for eating fish on Friday and telling them to be vegan instead because that takes effort.

…

Wow. Way to have a crappy witness to the beauty of Catholicism. I’m sorry that eating fish on Friday isn’t a sacrifice for you because it is for a lot of people for whom the act of limiting their food choices that much causes them to think about what feeds them spiritually. You come across as a sanctimonious twit.

Then, I saw a news report about wine not being served in Catholic churches due to COVID-19. People were responding that wine is never served in Catholic churches, causing me to facepalm because people are making pedantic remarks about how it is the BLOOD, not merely serving wine. Y’all, I know the difference (and my church is in the same situation where we’re restricting the Cup), but making catty remarks is not helping y’all convey the beauty of Catholicism.

How I’m Feeling At the Moment

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I’m actually not having a bad week, but I’ve needed to just go back to bed the last two mornings because living my life is exhausting me so much. The one-year anniversary of my grandmother’s passing was Tuesday, and I know something in my soul is feeling it even if I’m not incredibly weepy.

Sometimes, we just have to rest and let God heal things while we do so.

Faith in the Time of Coronavirus

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Yes, this is another backdated post. I had a busy day yesterday and didn’t get time to ponder things until late last night.

First thing: go read this. It is brilliant and talks about the pro-life aspect of the coronavirus fears. It also very easily explains why this post makes me stabby 5 years later. (The tl;dr of it is that the poster claims that mumps/measles/chicken pox aren’t things to worry about because she and her sister got them and turned out OK. It ignores the fact that some people who get them end up in really bad situations like losing their hearing or losing their babies.)

I got this email from my parish last night. The tl;dr of it is that we’re implementing protocols to limit the spread of COVID-19 in the parish. Regular parishioners will not receive the Blood, there will be no physical contact during the Peace, no Eucharistic Visitors are being sent out to shut-ins, we are not passing offering plates, counters are wearing gloves while counting the money, and the coffee hour hosts will wear gloves while serving the food. It feels a little bit like overkill to me, but I get why they’re doing it. We are an older parish and there is the potential for people to spread the virus is definitely present. We already have hand sanitizer stations in the church, so I predict those will be getting a lot of use.

The “no physical contact” during the Peace is kind of sucky for me because it’s the one time in the week that I get hugged, and it’s hard to explain why that is so important given that “physical touch” is #4 on the love languages test for me. Having been married and now divorced, I am admittedly a little bit starved for physical touch, and I’m also a huggy type of person.

However, I get why they’re being so careful (and I’m pretty sure this a diocese-wide thing) because the pneumonia that landed me in the hospital last year was from metapneumovirus, a pissy little cold virus given to me by Daniel that caused me to go from zero to sepsis in three days. I was in an isolation room for three days until they could figure out what I had, and that meant that anyone coming into my room had to gown/mask/glove up. My grandmother was in hospice at the time, so my poor mom would go see her for however long and then come see me (and bring me fresh pajama bottoms and underwear) before going home and taking care of my kid. I went back to work 3 days after getting out of the hospital, which was a stupid move because walking across the parking lot and then across campus would cause cough-to-vomit spasms for me for at least two weeks after my hospital discharge. If my pneumonia had been from COVID-19, I would have spread the virus without intending to do so.

Am I afraid of getting it? Not especially. Despite living in Washington state which has had 11 deaths from it, I’m not afraid because I already do things like wash my hands with soap for 20 seconds, use hand sanitizer if I’m not able to wash my hands immediately, I don’t go into doctor’s offices unnecessarily nor visit hospitals/nursing homes, and I’m doing well in my New Year’s intention to take good care of myself. Those who have died were elderly people with other severe conditions, and I’m not in that category at the moment after having my hysterectomy last fall and stopping my clotting disorder/anemia. Does it mean I’m taking a completely laissez-faire attitude? No.

Hoping that the COVID-19 threat passes soon and that we don’t have any other deaths in the state.