Day 70: Making sense of a world on fire

It’s been a bit hard to think about Hide Feed and Intention when it seems like the world is catching fire.

Today, I called my grandpa and asked him if he was still going to the gym. He said yes — he goes there to take showers. I asked him if he could use the one at home. He said he didn’t feel comfortable using it since it’s shared by my dad and stepmom (it’s a super long story so I won’t get into it here, but my grandpa is not on good terms with my dad). Being 88 years old, my grandpa is on the catch-coronavirus-and-there’s-a-good-chance-you’ll-actually-die demographic. I didn’t want him to kick the bucket simply because he couldn’t work out how to share the bathroom with my dad and my stepmom, so I spent some time being the middleman (you know your family is dysfunctional when you need to make separate phone calls to people living under the same roof to communicate between them) so that my grandpa could use the shower at home comfortably and not have to risk exposing himself at the gym.

I asked my parents, who are in their 60s, to stay at home for at least the next several weeks (I’m pretty sure it’ll be months before this all settles down, but saying “let’s try this for several weeks and re-evaluate” is much easier to go along with than asking them to commit to months of house arrest from the outset) and not go to local coffee shops or shopping outside. I need to find out whether Instacart or a similar service exists where they live so that I can order them groceries. Thankfully, their churches decided to stop holding services, so I didn’t need to try dissuading them from going (I wouldn’t have succeeded; they are quite devout and would have gone no matter what).

I’m glad that they’re willing to take this seriously and listen to my request for them to stay at home. I imagine seeing everything play out in Korea on the news (my family is Korean) over the last several weeks made it easier for them to see the gravity of the situation we’re in.

I’m pretty tired (still on NYC time, sleep-deprived from the all-nighter two nights ago, figuring out how to help my parents and grandpa not die, etc.) so going to head to bed. Good night!