#Covid 19 drained the magic out of coffee houses

[remembertheplunge]

The 5 things. March 19, 2020. Thursday. 9:31pm

Sculpt work out with the quiet man watching the lady in white question in coming shoppers re: the virus I assume this morning

Mac and Shawn (I think) his friend slept in his car last night.

Josh O. Stopped by briefly

Erin. /military Erin, mental health issues joined me for coffee outside preservation

Raymond, mac’s Denny’s friend called to say hi.

So did Mohan from fit republic

Beautiful schooner cloud sky

I got to say goodbye to the places I love today

Sent from my iPad

Notes re: above. 3/19/2024. Four years later.

As the gathering storm and horror of the Covid virus built up rapidly, I recorded it in my 5 things entry on my I Pad that I do nightly still. The 3/19/2020 "5 things" records my meetings that day with friends, some homeless, some not. Mac, Shawn, Josh O., and Erin were homeless. I had known them for anywhere for years to days. Mohan was a friend I met in the gym who was not homeless. Raymond I am not sure about (homeless or not). I was writing in my journal outside, drinking my cappuccino from a paper cup. We customers of Preservation Coffee in Downtown Modesto, California could no longer sit inside or drink from a porcelain mug due to the swirling virus. Drinking from the porcelain mug was part of the sacred ritual of my Preservation writing sessions. The virus drove the magic from the coffee house experience. it also drove the magic from plays and movies which I had loved to attend. I no longer write in coffee houses and rarely attend plays or movies. These are the things I loved that I got to say goodbye to 4 years ago.. In my journal on the table you can see that I was working with despair work due to the new potentially lethal virus world I found myself in. Quoting from the book Saved Sorrows" p 116, I wrote "...we can come to terms with apocalyptic anxieties in ways that are integrative and liberating..."