We are warned to wash our hands for 20 seconds and often. We are told to stay 6′ from all other human beings. We must wear protective masks when out of the house. We have a new vocabulary that includes “sheltering at home” “social distancing” “rising numbers” and “essential businesses” “spiking” “ventilators” “home-made masks” and a host of other phrases. The point of all these is to make us aware of the danger facing us. But nowhere do we actually see the result of that danger. We hear all the phrases on the 24/7 COVID19 news coverage, we see the medical workers and delivery people pleading for masks and protection as they struggle to keep us alive.
But, we do not see death. We hear it referred to only obliquely. We never see bodies coming out of hospitals or taken off ventilators. We do not see families wretched with loss. We do see videos of people who have recovered, and that is important for sure. But we do not see photos of people who have not recovered, and that, too, is important if we want everyone on this planet to take all the warnings seriously and put an end to this contagion.
In relegating those who have been snatched from us to some vague category of “rising numbers”, we do a disservice to everyone. We do a cruel disservice to those who will never return home and we do a foolish disservice to the living world. How are people to take this as seriously as they need to if they never see what happens if they do not.
Who gets the love letters here? Those who have died. Death does not preclude writing a love letter. And yes you can still mail it to someone so that memory of those you love and have lost will live on for generations. It takes a little planning but it is so worth doing, and truth be told, as you bathe in the beauty of the people who are gone from this earth, you will feel their presence. I hope you will take on this assignment. It is an oddly cheerful mission in a grim time.
Remember that the stamp you use can be the first visible sign of what is in your heart.
From me to you with love on the way,
Janet