Day 17

I call my insurance provider to submit an address-change request. I hear rushing water in the background; maybe someone is doing the dishes or taking a shower, I think to myself. The agent on the other line asks me how I’m weathering the current situation; I offer my signature line: as long as we’re healthy, secure, and armed with patience, this, too, shall pass. I reciprocate: “I don’t know where you are, but wherever you are, I hope you’re staying well,” I wish him. He’s in Florida, thanks me, and shares my sentiments. We hang up.

The same day, Aida receives an email. It’s from the bridal dress store in Los Angeles; they are checking in to see if the wedding will be taking place as planned and whether the dress must be ready by the end of May. The dressmakers in Spain may need some extra time. The email starts and ends with wishes of health and wellbeing.

I text my client in New York. I’m worried that my emails may not have been going through, or that they have been going through but… something is the matter. She responds to my text with an overflow of feeling, a message sent from one human to another. They’re doing well, thankfully, and adapting to the challenges of the new times. She expresses hope that we doing well, also, and asks if I’m in the U.S. or with family in Armenia.

Is this not phenomenal? None of the above three communications had any mention of coronavirus or COVID-19 involved, yet the participants in each of them knew exactly what the other was going through, the troubles they were facing, expressing concern on how they are coping.

There is no need to explain oneself, no need for unnecessary words, because what is left unsaid need not be said in the first place.

Everywhere on this planet, for all persons in every home and in all homes in every town, the hearts of all beat together: in their thoughts and in their words, in their fears and in their hopes.

The world is synchronized, like never before in the times we’ve lived in.

The world has become one.