what should I be doing while in self isolation?  laundry?   no need – I can live in my pjs or sweats now, so I don’t have a lot of laundry to do.

shower and wash hair?    no need  —  no one will know, no one is going to see me.

the nice people on TV news suggest if I am bored I should play board games – I appreciate the pun – however my cat refuses to play monopoly with me or any other board game for that matter – she doesn’t want me to monopolize her time. She is on a tight schedule of eating, napping in the sun, bird watching out the window and back to eating again,  she really has no time for me  . . .

this self isolation (which I thought initially was for people having symptoms of flu, but now I guess is for everyone regardless?) gives me time to ponder many things

chief among them is today’s question, “why toilet paper?”  I am wondering why toilet paper (along with other items of course), but toilet paper is what those nice news people have been reporting for about a week now, is gone off of store shelves everywhere and very hard to find.  I guess there have been long lines and fights over toilet paper.  Toilet paper is like the newest I-phone but not.  People don’t hoard phones, they become obsolete way too quickly.

Now I understand hand sanitizer and disinfectant wipes being in greater demand than usual, as they are directly related to the remedy, helping to prevent the spread of this disease (as with many influenzas, colds, etc.) by helping us to keep our hands clean and our surfaces clean.

But I haven’t quite figured out what new and different role toilet paper now plays in the fight against this new virus, that it would suddenly be in such demand, even more than food.

Toilet paper is both soft and non perishable (thus its appeal?) but I think it’s about control.  We feel out of control. We can’t control our circumstances so we buy toilet paper.  Maybe it makes us feel more prepared?  And feeling prepared makes us feel like we are more in control than we actually are.  But perception is everything.  So if we believe we are doing our part to fight this coronavirus by stockpiling, hoarding, rounding up all available toilet paper, then we will continue to do this because it helps us to cope with the uncertainty that surrounds us.

Toilet paper has become the new comfort, feel better purchase.  I personally prefer comfort food to comfort toilet paper.  A wise someone I know stocked up on brownie mix, ice cream, sweet rolls  – that’s my kind of impending disaster response.  I would add mac & cheese and Stacy’s pita chips and I would be one prepared self isolator.

I haven’t turned on the TV at all so far today.  I feel like I need a break from the information overload and constant contradictory numbers and news concerning the spread of COVID-19.  Everytime something else gets shut down I feel a little more isolated and a little more hemmed in.

But there is One who hems me in – in a way that comforts and protects me.  “You hem me in – behind and before;  You have laid Your hand upon me.”  (Psalm 139:5)

Instead of watching TV, today I am reading these words from Psalm 91:2-6, “I will say of the Lord, ‘He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.’  Surely He will save you from the fowler’s  snare and from the deadly pestilence.  He will cover you with His feathers,  . . .   You will not fear the terror of night,  . . .  nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness, nor the plague that destroys at midday.”

those words comfort me more than stockpiles of toilet paper ever could.  I will rest in those living words today   . . . .  while the Corona Chronicles continue  . . .

sincerely,     Grace Day