Travel Withdrawal

 

I’m suffering from travel withdrawal. It has been over a year since Roland and I went on our last international vacation. Since then we’ve had to postpone a trip to Africa and another to Australia and New Zeeland, which have been rescheduled for later this year and next spring, respectively. We’re praying that they don’t get postponed again.

In the meantime, I’m reflecting back on our last trip. I never wrote about it on this blog because COVID-19 swallowed up all other news when we returned. So now it’s time to give you a brief overview. We saw too many sights and I took too many photographs to include them all here, so I’ll try to just give you a flavor of each place.

Roland and I flew to Puerto Rico on February 20, 2020 to board a ship for a Viking ocean cruise through the Caribbean and up the Amazon River in Brazil. It was the Amazon River part of the trip that attracted us, but we’ve cruised with Viking before and always had a good experience. We expected this time to be the same, and it was.

Our first stop was in Bridgetown, Barbados, where we took a bus tour of the island. Our second stop was in French Guiana at Ile Royale, which is the largest of the Iles du Salut (Salvation Islands) and used to be the site of a famous French prison.

The first photo below is an evening shot of the Customs Building in San Juan, which was taken from our cabin balcony on the Viking Sea. The second is St. James Parish Church (Anglican), which is the oldest church on Barbados, and the last show some of the flora and fauna on Ile Royale.

Our first stop in Brazil was at the city of Santarem. Next, we anchored at the small town of Parintins, Brazil and attended a performance of a folk musical called Boi Bumba. From there we went to Manaus, Brazil, which is the largest city on the Amazon and is about 1,000 miles up the river.

The first two photos below show the Cathedral of Our Lady of Conception and one of many hammock stalls in the plaza in front of the cathedral at Santarem. The next two are the skyline of Manaus and the Manaus Opera House.

The ship turned around at Manaus. On the return trip down the Amazon, we docked near the colorful fishing town of Belem, Brazil. These photos show the fishing boats at Belem and some of the fish in the market.

While docked at Manaus, we took a small boat excursion up the Rio Negro, which is where we saw the macaw shown in the photo at the head of this post.

After returning to the Caribbean, we stopped at Tobago and then at Saint Lucia. At Saint Lucia we rode an aerial tram through the rain forest and also took a tour of the island. From there, we sailed to St. John’s, Antigua for a bus tour around the island. Our last stop before returning to Puerto Rico was St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands. St. Thomas was crowded with cruise ships, and ours was dwarfed by those from other cruise lines. The iguanas sunned themselves on the rocks as they ignored the crowds of tourists.

The next two photos show the aerial tram on Ssint Lucia and a view of Antigua’s English Harbor. The final two are from St. Thomas. See how small our ship is compared to the one next to it.

We returned to Puerto Rico on March 11 and flew home. We had absolutely no issues with COVID-19 on the trip, but when we got to San Juan we discovered that Viking had cancelled all future cruises until further notice. So we felt really fortunate to have gotten our trip in.

And Roland and I are anxiously waiting for the next one.

What a Difference a Year Makes--Or Does It?

 

Last year at this time there were no in-person Easter services or congregational Easter breakfast and my choir was on hiatus. This year was still off. As with last year, there was no Easter breakfast at church. The choir didn’t sing an anthem because our director is recovering from a serious case of COVID-19. But things have improved. We had in-person services and the choir participated by singing a couple of hymn verses.

COVID restrictions are still in place, and I’m not sure what effect they had on attendance. You can see from the photo that family groups are still socially distanced from other family groups and the section on the left-hand side is masked for the entire service. (Everyone is required to wear masks to and from their seats, but the other sections can remove them during the service.) In former times, all of the seats would have been filled at this particular service on Easter instead of having the empty pews in between.

But the real meaning of Easter was the same two years ago and last year and this year and forever. Easter and every other Sunday (and every day) reminds us that Christ died and rose for sinners like us. Like me. As it says in Romans 5:8-11 (NIV):

⁸But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. ⁹Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! ¹⁰ For if, when we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! ¹¹Not only is this so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

__________

I took the picture from the choir loft at the 9:30 a.m. service during the sermon I was hearing for the third time.

Writing About the Pandemic

 

When is it too soon to start writing stories about the pandemic? And should we?

When people are panicking, it’s not a good idea to feed into their fears. And if a writer is having a hard time handling it, maybe that person should wait until he or she can see it more objectively.

On the other hand, I’ve seen several good examples of how it can be done right. Since the comic strip Rex Morgan is written several months in advance, it took a while before its series on the Covid -19 quarantine began publication. But now I’m enjoying all those panels that show the characters living through what everyone else is dealing with.

Then there is humor. I bought a book from Audible called Inside Jobs: Tales from a Time of Quarantine, by Ben H. Winters. It is three short stories about crime during the pandemic and, since I purchased it on May 1, it must have been written quickly. The stories vary in style but all are interesting, and the first is hilarious as three gangsters working from home try to figure out how to steal a priceless postage stamp after the pandemic foils their first plan.

But what if someone is trying to write a contemporary novel? Will the writer date it by setting it during the pandemic? If he or she wants that specific setting, great. But the mystery I’m currently writing has nothing to do with the pandemic, and I don’t want to get sidetracked by it. So my “contemporary” murder mystery is written as if it was 2019 (without any reference to dates, however). Hopefully it will still be “contemporary” when life returns to normal.

Another option is to use the pandemic as inspiration for a historical novel with a similar theme but set at a different time. I recently read Pharmacy Girl, a middle-grade historical about the Spanish Influenza. Except for the historical markers, it could have been written about this pandemic. The book was published last year, before most people in the U.S. were even aware of Covid-19, so it wasn’t inspired by the current crisis. But it is eerily similar.

So if you want to write about the pandemic, go ahead.

__________

The photo was taken during the Spanish Influenza pandemic and is in the public domain because of its age.

Covid-19 Drags Publishers Into the 21st Century

 

Covid-19 isn’t a good thing, but it does have some useful consequences.

Last week I finished another round of publisher submissions for one of my middle-grade historicals, and it was easier than the previous time I submitted (a different book) to these same publishers. Then, three out of six took submissions by email, while the others required snail mail submissions. This time only one required snail mail submissions. So it appears that Covid has dragged two publishers—or 33% of the sample—into the 21^st century.

I never could understand why publishers preferred hard copies. Some of it may be paranoia about viruses, but requiring submissions as Word or PDF documents makes them unlikely, and good virus software detects and eliminates scripts and any other minor problems that may attach to those types of documents.

Email benefits the writer, the publisher, and the environment. I don’t have to waste money on paper, ink, and postage or spend time going to the post office. Editors don’t have to lug around paper documents but can read submissions right on their laptops or tablets. And if the editor isn’t interested, the submission can be deleted without having to recycle the paper, thus helping the environment.

It’s possible that those two publishers were teetering on the edge of the 21^st century already and would have gotten there without the pandemic. Still, I’m glad the pandemic has caused some publishers to rethink their submission requirements.

But I’ll be even happier if one of them accepts my book.

A Covid-19 Story Idea

 

Earlier this year, I had begun planning a summer research trip to New England to visit lighthouses. Then Covid-19 closed everything down. I kept hoping I could get the trip in, but by now it’s pretty clear that I will have to wait until next year.

New England’s Covid restrictions are a big part of the problem. My plan was to visit lighthouses in Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Maine, with the largest number in Maine. But Maine’s Covid-19 travel restrictions—which are similar to those in other parts of New England—would make for a frustrating and futile trip.

Maine’s travel page states, “It is mandated that all out-of-state travelers coming into Maine, as well as Maine residents returning to Maine, complete a 14-day quarantine upon arrival.”  Quarantined individuals must stay at home or in their lodgings the entire time. They may not even leave to go to a grocery store, so unless they bring enough food for two weeks, everything must be delivered. Obviously, this also means no sightseeing.

There is an exemption for anyone who has had a negative Covid-19 PCR test no more than 72 hours before entering the state, but this has its own logistical nightmares. If you get the test done in your own state before leaving, will you have the results within 72 hours? And in the case of my lighthouse tour, which would go from one state to another, we would likely need to be tested more than once to meet their requirements.

The Maine instructions say that if you haven’t received the results by the time you arrive in the state, you can quarantine “in your lodging” until you receive the results, but in the unlikely event of a positive test, the entire trip will have been wasted. Or you can quarantine in your lodging for 14 days, but who is going to spend the bulk of their vacation cooped up in a hotel room just so they can get a little sightseeing in afterwards?

But, you ask, how will the authorities know? The Maine rules require hotels, campgrounds, Airbnb hosts, and so on to obtain a Certificate of Compliance signed by each guest. Cars with out-of-state license plates are probably targets for police checks. And I’m guessing that rental car companies are required to collect a Certificate of Compliance, too. A traveler who violates the travel restrictions can receive up to six months in jail, a $1000 fine, and an order requiring that person to pay the state’s expenses.  

So I was concerned when I learned that a good friend planned to travel to New England this week. She was going as companion to a friend who wanted to do some sightseeing there, and I’m guessing the woman was making the arrangements and hadn’t thought to check out any travel restrictions. My first reaction was to warn my friend—and I did.

But my second reaction was to imagine the story possibilities. What if a clueless family traveled to New England and discovered they couldn’t get a hotel room without signing a Certificate of Compliance? Would they lie, and what would happen if they did? Would they turn around and go home? Would they tell the truth and quarantine in a hotel room until they could get tested and receive the results or even for the entire 14 days? And what kind of craziness would result from being cooped up together in a tiny froom without even the chance to take their St. Bernard outside for a walk? Maybe the story would even be the basis for another blockbuster comedy movie like National Lampoon’s Vacation or Trains, Planes, and Automobiles.

Or not. I have so many projects on my desk now that I may never get around to writing the story. I also won’t be traveling to New England anytime soon.

Because I’d rather experience it in fiction than in real life.

A Covid Fashion Show

I have so many face masks that I needed a place to store them. Roland gave me one of his tie racks, and it works perfectly.

Portraits are not my strong point, and neither, apparently, are selfies. Still, the photos in this post will give you an idea of my current obsession with coordinating my face masks and my outfits. Since I have to wear the masks anyway, why not make it fun? What follows is only a sampling.

My first face mask was homemade by Roland from instructions he got from a church friend. I don’t know what I did with this mask after we started buying them over the Internet.

Next, Roland bought several of these masks for each of us. (It’s really more of a green than a blue, but I couldn’t get the hue right.) I keep one in my car.

When I finally had a chance to get my hair cut, I liked the face mask my hairdresser was wearing, so I asked where it came from. The three-layer masks from www.myshieldmask.com are my favorites for fit and comfort, were relatively inexpensive, and arrived quickly. Only two of them are shown here.

The My Shield masks didn’t come in every color I wanted, so I bought two from someplace else. (I think they've added more since then, however.) Unfortunately, I don’t remember the manufacturer or website. They took a while to arrive, were only two layers, and didn’t fit perfectly, although they are better after I modified the straps and sewed another layer of cloth inside.

Those masks did have an inside pocket for a disposable filter, but the filters that are available, or at least that I can find, were made for commercial masks and don’t fit well in the cloth masks made in response to Covid-19. I added a smaller holder, but I didn’t like the way it worked in these two masks, so I ended up taking it out.

Then there are the masks that I bought from Hyperfavor (www.hyperfavor.com) just for fun. It took a while before they arrived, and they came with two layers and a filter pocket. The holder I added works better in this shape mask, but I still sewed in a third layer of material. These masks fit fairly well although they aren’t perfect.

All of these masks had ear loops. I modified the first masks Roland bought to replace the ear loops with tie strings at the top and bottom, and I did the same with the multi-colored mask shown above. That helped with the comfort and the fit, but it takes longer to get them off and on since they have to be tied each time.

So when I saw a Facebook ad from Pure Mask (www.puremask.com) for a mask with around-the-head elastic bands at the top and bottom, I bought one. It is a little loose and isn’t easily modified, but it has three layers and came quickly.

The final group of masks I bought also have three layers, and I bought them primarily for the nose guard on top and the fact that I could get several colors I didn’t already have. The ear loops were a little loose, but I managed to tighten them up with a needle and thread. I ordered these masks from www.starks.com and they took a long time to arrive, but they complete my wardrobe.

One concern I have with the over-the-ear masks is what to do with them when I’m out somewhere and have to take them off to eat or take communion. If I carry them in my hand, they can get in the way or I might drop them by mistake. If I set them down, I may forget them. So I tied elastic string around the bottom of the ear loops on several masks. It doesn’t help with the fit, but it does allow me to take the mask off while leaving it around my neck.

When the pandemic began, who knew it would start a new fashion trend?

Can Covid-19 Stop the Free Exercise of Religion?

We continue to hear about restrictions on religious services even as the country is opening back up or, in some cases, closing down again.

Many churches have chosen to comply with governmental restrictions because they are concerned about the safety of their congregations and also because of Romans 13, which essentially says that Christians should submit to the governing authorities. Obviously, if it is impossible to obey both God and man, then God comes first. But most churches have concluded that there are sufficient ways to worship God that don’t conflict with governmental restrictions.

I said most, not all. Recently, the U.S. Supreme Court was asked to rule in two lawsuits challenging restrictions on the number of people who can attend religeous services during the Covid-19 epidemic.

I’m going to try to make this as simple as possible, but let me start with a little background. The Supreme Court has consistently read the First Amendment’s Freedom of Religion Clause to hold that governments may not place any restrictions on religious beliefs and opinions. But it has also consistently held that the protection for religious PRACTICES is not absolute. In particular, it tends to uphold restrictions on religious behavior (rather than religious beliefs) if the restrictions  (1) involve an area the state is authorized to regulate (e.g., public health and safety), and (2) do not discriminate against religion (i.e., they must also apply to similar activities by secular entities). There is another test that has to do with the strength of the governmental purpose, but that test is complicated and got fuzzier in 1990, so I won’t go into it here.  Finally, the Court’s cases in other contexts make it clear that governments can impose restrictions during an emergency that will not be allowed once the emergency is over.

Both of the recent cases were filed by churches that wanted to hold services that exceeded the attendance numbers set by the state. In the California case, the governor had restricted service attendance to the smaller of 25% of building capacity or 100 individuals. The Nevada case limited attendance to 50 individuals. In each lawsuit, the church asked the Court to issue an injunction prohibiting the state from enforcing the restrictions imposed on churches. And in each instance, the Supreme Court declined.

Does that mean we should be worried about losing our religious freedoms?

No.

First, since injunctions prohibit people from acting, the standards for obtaining them are extremely high. The denial of the injunctions does not tell us anything about how the Court would rule on the same issues when presented in a different type of proceeding.

Second, the Court did not issue a decision explaining its reasoning. The result could be different in cases with facts that are not completely identical.

Third, as noted above, restrictions legally imposed during an emergency can become unconstitutional once the emergency is over.

I am firmly convinced that the First Amendment Freedom of Religion Clause still lives.

__________

Kathryn Page Camp is a retired attorney and the author of In God We Trust: How the Supreme Court’s First Amendment Decisions Affect Organized Religion, 2^nd ed. (KPPK Publishing, 2015).

The Lighter Side of the Pandemic

The pandemic isn’t anything to laugh about. Still, it helps to look at the lighter side sometimes.

Who thought up the name of this pandemic? The Black Death, Spanish Influenza, and Bird Flu have a romantic sound. Even AIDS and EBOLA have a bit of a ring to them. But Covid-19?

My nomination is Rose Burr. If you look at the photo from the CDC, it looks a bit like one of those burrs you get in your socks and pants when walking across an uncultivated field, except that the stickers in Covid-19 are rose-red.

Here are some changes that have resulted from Rose Burr:

·       Observing “Wear Your Pajamas to Work Day/Week/Month/Year”—this is not me, though; I’ve been working from home for years and discovered early on that I take it more seriously if I dress as I used to when I went to my office in Chicago;

·       Losing track of the days and wondering if it is Facemask Friday yet;

·       Buying masks as fashion accessories—if I have to wear one in public, it should coordinate with my outfit;

·       Wondering what people are afraid of when they wear masks while driving alone in a car;

·       Using quarantine and social distancing as an excuse to stay away from people we don’t like;

·       Justifying the money spent on take-out and delivery as a way to support the restaurant industry—I’m in favor of this, by the way;

·       Getting up at a ridiculously early hour to do grocery shopping with the “at risk” segment of society before the store has a chance to get contaminated after its deep cleaning—and then fearing that I will get the virus from those employees who seem to believe that a face mask can be effective if it covers the mouth but not the nose;

·       Standing in line in the rain because there are too many people in the store already;

·       Learning that “one way” applies to grocery store aisles as well as streets;

·       Experimenting with tried and true dishes because the tried and true ingredients aren’t available;

·       Marveling that we and our non-techie friends have learned how to “attend” livestreamed church services and Zoom Bible studies;

·       Celebrating when we can finally get a haircut—and mourning for friends in states where that hasn’t happened yet.

The first time I saw a picture of the virus I thought, “How pretty.” But I have used my photo software to come up with some that are even more interesting. Here they are:

So hang in there, but don’t forget to look at the lighter side.

__________

The image at the top of this page is from the CDC and is in the public domain because it is a document produced by the government. The other images are my creative adjustments to the CDC image.