Shopping In The Plague Year

“And here I must observe again, that this necessity of going out of our houses to buy provisions was in a great measure the ruin of the whole city; for the people catched the distemper, on these occasions, one of another.” 

Daniel Defoe, History of the Plague in London.

Mindful of Mr. Defoe's admonition, I traveled to Walmart, not so much to shop as reconnoiter. The shelves were mostly full of necessities such as milk, bags of frozen fish, even a small amount of flour, though there was little meat. But there were few enough people to take advantage of the newly provisioned shelves. 

Stuck between the menace of Scylla and Charybdis, of the pest looming North to Dallas and South to Waco, they had stayed at home, such that you could fire a canon down dairy to beyond and not hit a soul. Still, some few had ventured out. 

Several, like myself, on reconnaissance. They stared silently at newly restocked pizzas and looked in vain for dry goods. Others, actual shoppers, pushed carts full of supplies. Some wore face bandannas as impromptu masks and  plastic gloves as protection from the plague. Both, doubtless, made in China.

I left the store with a Four Cheese pizza and a bottle of red wine and the words of Luke's Gospel echoing:

"...as it was in the days of Noah, so also will it be in the days of the Son of Man: People were eating and drinking, marrying and being given in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark. Then the flood came and destroyed them all..." (Lk 17: 26-27)

What a moment. Pope Francis in pouring rain, praying alone from the steps of an empty St Peter’s square.

“We are all in the same ship. We cannot make it alone. Only together.”
pic.twitter.com/aa2o3nrNRl

— Joyce Karam (@Joyce_Karam) March 27, 2020

Lest it do, pray with Pope Francis that this pestilence will pass over us and take note of his prayers before the miraculous crucifix of St. Marcellus and the icon of Mary Salus Populi Romani. A friend commented, "Ancient and spectacular and terrifying."

Ave,

LSP