<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The two women in the grocery store checkout line were buying\npudding packs. Lots of them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe\u2019ll eat these first,\u201d said the younger of the two women\nreassuringly. The older woman seemed frail. From a pocket, she pulled a tissue\nand dabbed her nose. The other woman took out a bottle of hand sanitizer and\nsqueezed it into her hands. She rubbed them together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The woman slowly turned her head and looked up at me. The\nolder woman. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I was standing there with a cart full of groceries. This was\nthe weekend before things got really \u201cinteresting.\u201d Before you couldn\u2019t find\nchicken or toilet paper or stuff you never thought stores would run out of. Or\nat least, not when there wasn\u2019t a tropical cyclone spinning off the Florida coast.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That weekend, things were only slightly off-kilter. Slightly\nhushed. Slightly concerned. The reality wasn\u2019t setting in yet. People who went\nto the grocery store that early in the morning looked at each other in ways I\nhaven\u2019t fully come to terms with. They jumped when they heard someone cough. They\nwalked the aisles solemnly. They paused near the cleaning supplies or the respiratory\nrelief pills and stared. Did they need them? Were they overreacting? <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sometimes they just looked at each other, like they didn\u2019t\nknow what to say. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Like the older woman dabbing her nose. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I don\u2019t know why it stuck. Things about people sometimes do\nthat to me. Maybe her eyes? There was something about her eyes? I couldn\u2019t figure\nit out. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
What was she thinking? <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Was she worried about the coronavirus? She must have been. Of\ncourse she was. Or worried about me? Maybe I was too close to her in the aisle.\nNo doubt she had been warned. Keep your distance! <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Or maybe \u2013 and this troubled me the most \u2013 maybe she thought\nI was worried about HER? She dabbed her nose. Clearly I saw that. That\u2019s when\nshe looked up at me. Did she wonder if I thought SHE was sick? That I didn\u2019t\nwant to be too near to HER? What a terrible thing for a person to wonder. I\nhope that wasn\u2019t it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I wanted to say something. The more I think about it, I wish\nI had. Something reassuring. Or cute. Or funny. But I wasn\u2019t quick enough, and got\nhung up trying to figure out that look \u2013 her worried eyes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I think of my good friend Hunter Camp. He\u2019s the pastor at\nMemorial Presbyterian in downtown St. Augustine. Hunter would have known what\nto do. He has what I can only describe as \u201chealing eyes.\u201d I don\u2019t know what it\nis, and I\u2019ll probably embarrass him by writing this, but oh well. What\u2019s he\ngoing to do? Kick me out. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Whatever it is, you come to him with a problem \u2013 some\ntrouble in the world \u2013 and his eyes say it all: \u201cIt\u2019s OK, brother. I\u2019m here.\nIt\u2019ll be all right.\u201d I don\u2019t know how he does it. Maybe they teach it in seminary\nschool? Or it\u2019s in his genes? <\/p>\n\n\n\n
But it\u2019s equal parts comfort and understanding. Maybe most\nof all, compassion. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Standing in the grocery store line, I wished I could have\nbeen like that. Was that all she needed? We\nneed a little more of that right now. It\u2019s getting crazy out there. My wife was\nat the grocery store and someone cut her and a couple other people off while\nracing to pay for a sub. My wife is from Long Island, and she said the New\nYorker in her wanted to \u201clet loose!\u201d But something else told her to just let it\ngo. Maybe he needs to get out of here more than you do. That\u2019s compassion. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
None of us know what tomorrow brings. Things are moving so\nquickly now. The stock market\u2019s in shambles. People are worried about their\nkids. Their jobs. Their livelihoods. Their retirement. It\u2019s moved beyond just\nhealth. Everything has us worried. We\u2019ve never seen anything like this before.\nNot hurricanes. Not Sept. 11. Not past recessions. Everything seemed to go bad\nall at once, and we don\u2019t know what it means for the future. In the blink of an\neye everything changed. And here we are, just \u2026 worried. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
And I keep thinking back to that woman in the grocery store\nline. Keep wanting a do-over. A chance to try it again. Just to smile. A real,\ngenuine smile. Something that might help tell her, \u201cIt\u2019s OK, sister. I\u2019m here. It\u2019ll\nbe all right.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The two women in the grocery store checkout line were buying pudding packs. Lots of them. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ll eat these first,\u201d said the younger of the two women reassuringly. The older woman seemed frail. From a pocket, she pulled a tissue and dabbed her nose. The other woman took out a bottle of hand sanitizer and squeezed it into her hands. She rubbed them together.<\/p>\n
The woman slowly turned her head and looked up at me. The older woman. <\/p>\n
I was standing there with a cart full of groceries. This was the weekend before things got really \u201cinteresting.\u201d Before you couldn\u2019t find chicken or toilet paper or stuff you never thought stores would run out of. Or at least, not when there wasn\u2019t a tropical cyclone spinning off the Florida coast. <\/p>\n
That weekend, things were only slightly off-kilter. Slightly hushed. Slightly concerned. The reality wasn\u2019t setting in yet. People who went to the grocery store that early in the morning looked at each other in ways I haven\u2019t fully come to terms with. They jumped when they heard someone cough. They walked the aisles solemnly. They paused near the cleaning supplies or the respiratory relief pills and stared. Did they need them? Were they overreacting? <\/p>\n
Sometimes they just looked at each other, like they didn\u2019t know what to say. <\/p>\n
Like the older woman dabbing her nose. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[576,577,558,574,572],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2056","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2020-nutshells","category-coronavirus","category-florida","category-health","category-in-the-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2056","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2056"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2056\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2057,"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2056\/revisions\/2057"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2056"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2056"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2056"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}