Be Wise, Islanders and Visitors

This past Saturday, we drove through town and it was packed. There was a car in every single parking space and there was actual traffic. After life looking like a ghost town every day and every weekend for a year, I loved it! I couldn’t figure out why all of a sudden there were people on every sidewalk and milling outside of every store, especially since it was rainy and cold, but it sure felt good to see life.

We’ve done a great job out on these islands with masking and distancing. In fact, every time I pass locals on a wide open trail out in the wilderness, they put on their masks even though we are well-distanced and outside. I think it’s kind of like the new “Bless You;” it doesn’t make things safer necessarily but it’s become a sign of respect. So I put mine on too as a nonverbal, “I-respect-your-safety-too” response. (I normally don’t wear mine outside unless I can’t distance, but I respond in kind to those who put theirs on when passing me.)

Statistically speaking, it’s seemed from the beginning of the pandemic that outside, fairly-distanced relations aren’t virus spreaders. It doesn’t bother me a bit to see people in town, on the beaches, or in the woods enjoying this beautiful place. I would want to too, if I’d been stuck in a city too long. This is not my world just because we own a house here. I love when the world comes to me, especially if I can’t go out to it – new faces, colors, accents, styles, cultures – such nice change.

On the other hand, now is the time for the slippery slope. Spring is here and the sun is finally coming out more often. There’s a palpable urgency – boy, do I feel it myself! – to get out and see the world; to travel; to connect with others; to put all of this crazy pandemic junkola aside and LIVE again! I think we’re all feeling it on a global scale.

But here’s the catch – gathering indoors still isn’t safe if a virus is around. The virus doesn’t care that the San Juan Islands have now moved to Phase 3. It doesn’t mean we’re safer. Yes, we have zero cases. Right now. But with a new influx of visitors each weekend, there is higher chance it will pass around. The vaccine is just right around the corner for those of us who haven’t yet received it. The health workers, teachers, and 65-and-older folks may be good to go, but there is a sizeable percentage of the population that is just as vulnerable as we’ve been for the past year.

Please continue to delay gathering closely and unmasked indoors yet if you’re not vaccinated.

Please do not loosen school student-to-student distances and be pulled to think kids are immune. Kids are finally getting back in the classroom – what a shame it would be to blow it again for them. We don’t have enough facts yet about children and the virus.

Please be wise in restaurants. Just because officials have decided that we should open up capacity before we’re all safe to do so doesn’t mean those cozy, unmasked, indoor gatherings are safe.

Please don’t fill churches – we all deeply need to congregate with each other, but I want to sit unmasked, elbow-to-elbow once you and I don’t run the risk of hospitalization for doing so.

In essence, please continue to make wise individual decisions each moment, each day.

There are so many differing opinions among people here on Orcas – in our school, in our church, and in our community as a whole. I know of some people who have stayed at home – literally in their houses – this entire year. On the other hand, I know of some who are having unmasked gatherings all the time. There was even a woman at a take-out place the other day announcing that Gavin Newsom should be “taken out back and shot” and that Fauci is part of a conspiracy against us. There is someone sitting on every notch of the spectrum here.

Somehow, despite all of our differences, Orcas Island is still a peaceful place to be. I am really impressed on the whole with how we’ve handled each other. We school families are all over the map when it comes to what we think about gathering and whether we allow our kids to hang out with each other, yet we have all tried to respect each other’s opinion differences and work smoothly through it. It’s pretty remarkable, really.

We islanders as a whole are fortunate to be surrounded by a body of water that’s separated us from activity with others all winter. But as the sun comes out and we start wanting to do life as we used to know it, let’s keep being wise in order to keep the numbers low.