COVID Interrupted

The past few weeks have been hard for me and my family. Half of us had COVID earlier this month. My youngest daughter is 10 and was therefore unvaccinated. She brought it home from school despite wearing a mask and trying to be careful. However, she is only one of two children in her class that wear one. Masks protect others more than yourself, so it didn’t help much when one of her classmates that sits at her table brought the virus to school. I, my wife, and my mother also contracted the virus from my daughter. Thankfully, we’re all vaccinated and experienced only minor symptoms. My mother is 70 and had worse symptoms than the rest of us, but still nothing bad enough to require hospitalization.

After we recovered from that, my 12-year-old daughter had a mental health crisis. She waited in the ER for a week; couldn’t find a placement, so they discharged her. We took her to partial inpatient therapy for two weeks. She changed medications. It may or may not be helping. She has dual health insurance from my wife’s job and through the state since we adopted her through foster care. Insurance and payment aren’t a concern. There is literally no availability, at least for children with violent outbursts. What’s our recourse if she becomes violent again? Call the police. Take her to the ER. Rinse, repeat until she’s 18, or seriously hurts someone or becomes suicidal.

Resistance Again

I wrote previously about Resistance. It takes many forms. However, what do you do when you have legitimate physical or mental health issues that crop up? I was able to focus on my day job (kind of), but not my writing. Does that mean I’m not taking my writing seriously? Treating it as a profession? Maybe. I’m also a human being with only so many hours in a day and bills to pay. This is the crux of the Resistance argument though: what do you do when life throws you a curveball, and then a screwball, and then a knuckleball? You dust yourself off and try again.

Closing

This wasn’t what I intended to write this week or last week for that matter, but it was what I wrote. The important thing is that I sat down and wrote something. It may not be some half-researched analysis on an 80s cult classic I’ve seen one too many times, but it turned out okay.

Quote of the Week

Like it or not, we either add to the darkness of indifference and out-and-out evil which surrounds us or we light a candle to see by.

Madeleine L’Engle