Together, Alone: Community Voices Documenting Life in the Pandemic

This morning I had a shock when a woman hailed me at the park. She recognized me as someone who used to attend her church. From a safe distance, we shared Christian matters. A second woman who knew me joined the conversation.
“The church is closed during the pandemic,” said the first woman.
“Good!” I said. “Ministers ought to encourage people to remember God doesn’t have to be worshiped in a building.”
(Words to that effect.)
“Well, several people got sick from Covid so he made a hard decision and told people to stay home.”
“Why? Why?” I thought, but said,
“Where’s the difficult decision? Where’s the common sense? The minute a confirmed case of the disease was announced in this country should have been the moment to stop all unnecessary contact with others.”
Not wait for people to get sick.
Unsaid thought. No point in being rude, right?
In the interests of the comment’s word count limits, I will skip over the part where the first woman announced that she was cutting off any further discussion, using arm motions to demonstrate “cutting through the conversation.”
“You and I are in total disagreement about everything except God.”
Her anger was apparent. I felt bad for her. However, from a social distance, the three of us prayed and parted in Christian charity, as mutual answers to our previous week’s prayers to spread love. Deliver us from evil.