Living in Los Banos during the coronavirus crisis

From my perspective Los Banos has responded well to the strangest experience most of us can remember: living in a world with a rapidly spreading coronavirus.

Overall, Los Banosans have been careful and caring.

I appreciate everyone who has exercised care by staying home, especially senior citizens like me. Even more, I appreciate everyone who has been out working because they have to — especially doctors, nurses, CNAs and all others working in hospitals, transitional care centers and assisted living facilities, as well as all first responders.

I’m also appreciative of persons working in grocery and drug stores for transporting, unloading, stocking and checking out much needed groceries and medicines.

Like most of us I have had abundant time to reflect and more time to think, maybe too much time. It’s been easy to imagine the worst possibilities and harder to conceive of a time when we return to what we long for — the normal and the routine.

When I think back to the last month, I’m amazed at how quickly we went from OK to lockdown. Less than a month ago, on March 6, a large number of residents gathered to celebrate Arbor Day in Los Banos at Skylark Park.

On March 11 I drove my sister from Merced, where she was rehabbing well from shoulder surgery, to visit her doctor in Fresno for a positive checkup. On March 15, the last day of Los Banos normalcy, my wife Sandy hosted a shower for our grandson’s fiance.

On March 16 everything changed. The country’s president and his team of experts told everyone in the nation not to gather in groups of more than 10. Within a few days restaurants and bars in Los Banos closed, except for take-out orders.

I felt particularly bad for people working in Los Banos restaurants, many of whom I’ve come to know well. I appreciate that many are staying open to prepare and deliver food.

As a resident of Merced County, I felt lucky. As of March 16 the county had no confirmed cases of the coronavirus. By March 29, that number had risen to nine.

But people in Los Banos, as well as in other parts of the county, were proactive in trying to reduce the potential spread of the virus.

On March 16 I followed the advice of health officials and stayed home all day. Like many others, especially older adults who are considered “vulnerable” to the virus, I was in self-isolation. Sheltered in place, I didn’t leave my house.

For the next three days Sandy and I agreed to watch three granddaughters while their mother and father worked, and a fourth granddaughter came to join them. It’s been a while since we had kids in the house for most of the day, but Sandy and I adapted, as did the kids.

I eventually got up the nerve to leave my house and go the grocery and the drug stores. I wasn’t worried about myself. Even at age 74 I have a pretty good immune system. I did worry about being an asymptomatic carrier of the virus to someone whose immune system is compromised. That would be devastating.

What lies ahead is anybody’s guess. I tried to think of comparisons in my lifetime to what the country is going through, but all that came to mind was the 9/11 attack and the assassination of President Kennedy. In the imaginative world, I remembered the science fiction movies where the entire planet Earth fights against the aliens. Today, the alien is the coronavirus.

Regarding the coronavirus updates on television, like many of my readers, I ration my time spent watching the news. Too much news is psychologically overwhelming. Old movies are better, especially for reducing stress.

With all the time I had to think, I tried to focus on the blessings I still have. And I remembered what Viktor Frankl wrote in “Man’s Search for Meaning” about people in a time of crisis. They either focus on themselves or on others — in today’s world, either hoarding or helping.

Frankl was a Jewish professor of neurology and psychology in Austria, who, during World War II, was rounded up and sent to a concentration camp. He closely observed how he and others in the camp reacted to their inhumane treatment.

He concluded that “everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms — to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.” As we all deal with the coronavirus crisis, we each have the ability to choose our own way: to be selfish or selfless.

And for those inclined to pray, I came across an appropriate prayer, written by Thomas Merton more than 50 years ago, but applicable today:

“Lord, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. But I will trust you always, though I may seem to be lost. And in the shadow of death, I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.”

This story was originally published April 3, 2020 at 5:00 AM.