An innovative mash-up of interviews, cartoons and personal narrative that illuminates the sheltering-in-place experience during the first few months of the Covid-19 pandemic.
“This collection is an astounding amount of storytelling, in clear honest language. Vulnerable, and straight forward. It’s as though you reported on what each of us grabbed for as we ran for shelter, what emotional baggage and internal resources we found, in the time of hunkering down, and what dreams and insights we are finding, sifting through the aftermath …some ravaged and some resilient. It’s such a unique and personal approach.”
From Cheryl Clark, one of the people profiled in Taking Shelter
Excerpt
Were the folks at Virus-R-Us building a better and better virus, they had nailed a new feature in the Covid-19 model. With this virus you could be contagious without even knowing you were sick. That was a groundbreaking advancement in virus technology. Now you couldn’t stay healthy by keeping your distance from the snorting coughing Kleenex-wadding jackass who came to school with snot on his sleeve. As many as a third of the people who had covid didn’t manifest any symptoms. And if that meant you couldn’t avoid them, it also meant they didn’t realize that they could deliver you a lethal dose with a friendly hug.
With the dawning realization that the virus had added this new technology, came two realizations: first, anybody could have it, and since you couldn’t know who did, you might be wise to assume that everyone did.
The second realization was even more pernicious. If you couldn’t be sure that you were not one of those third of the people who were infectious without knowing it, you had to assume you were infectious. You could make anyone sick.
And just like that, the powerful thread that binds us together – the power of touch, the power of human intimacy – was gone from the world.
It was as if all the human magnets in the world had reversed polarization; we no longer attracted, we repelled.