Memoirous

So here I am for twenty minutes—the amount of time I can concentrate these days. I spend most of my time being distracted, touching my face, trying not to touch my face, or else washing my hands. A lot of time is wasted on mortality. Mine and the people I love. Charting the course of the disease in Italy. Every time I type corona virus I can’t believe I’m not writing an apocalyptic novel, speculating on end-of-the-world scenarios. I also meditate on how quickly life can change. And how puny some problems seem compared to now. We learn a lot when forged in the fire of uncertainty. Like the importance of friends and family. Stuff we used to take for granted. Stuff we always thought would be there, we see how quickly it disappears like toilet paper on a grocery shelf. This is a metaphor—but also a literal analogy. Which reminds me of Anne Frank. Every step of the way Otto Frank was thinking ahead. He had proactively moved his family from Germany to Amsterdam in 1933 w...