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I Didn’t Want to Live Through a Pandemic
But Making the Decision to Live Through a Pandemic Was an Easy Choice for Me…
The pandemic caught me by surprise. Perhaps each of us can say this, but then we all think our situation is unique. I do know one thing; I didn’t want to live through a pandemic. It was never on my bucket list and I had never given it a second thought. But here it is and my goal is to not only survive but to also accomplish some meaningful activities during this time, however long it lasts.
On January 25th, 2020 I boarded a train for Los Angeles with forty of my fellow Rotarians. Our destination was Union Station in the heart of downtown. As the train chugged into the station and screeched to a stop, we disembarked en masse and greeted those who had been riding in a different train car from us. As we began our short journey, walking the several blocks over to Chinatown for our Lunar New Year celebration the conversation was around the people who chose not to join us that day.
There were four in all and the reason they gave was that they did not want to spend time with Chinese people because of the new virus that was spreading into Europe and the United States from Wuhan, China. I didn’t comment at the time. We all thought Chinatown was bustling with activity on that sunny day, but later we…
