The Postponement

As I sit at my laptop writing, the sun shines happily through the window and onto my sleeping puppy. My orange cat grooms my black cat in a show of feline brotherhood. My fiance reads a book in the other room. In an hour I'll settle in with a cup of tea and we'll watch an old movie.

This could be any March day. But it's not.

There's an odd sense of normalcy amidst a panicked country, and I find it trapped in my apartment now. A deadly virus crept into our lives, case by case, until it infiltrated the very air we breath and the surfaces we touch. I'm probably not going to suffer serious health consequences, but I could carry this and hurt someone I care about. So here I sit, honoring the self-isolation requested by the state and national government. My school has suspended classes for the next three weeks, with the possibility of another three to five weeks more.

The Citizen's Forum of the 1860s was meant to bring people together, and that's exactly what we don't need at this time. I could live with cold-like symptoms but I wouldn't be able to live with myself if I'd contributed to some else's illness. I made the call to postpone the conference, and the swing of emotions that accompany that decision. It has taken about a week to really come to terms with it. After a year of planning and hard work, it's hard to delay.

Our goal is to postpone for at least a month or two, possibly run the conference in June, or even a smaller version in the fall. Time will tell how the virus runs its course. In the meantime, I'm home for at least the next three weeks. We're doing our best to participate in social distancing, so no trips or visits with anyone for the foreseeable future. I could really use a family visit right now.

I hope you are safe and well. I think I'll feel a bit better in another few days. My puppy and kittens are certainly working their therapeutic magic.

~Kristen