Plagues on Our Timeline

A plague has descended upon our house.  I spent some time this morning doing some internet searching to see if that sentence is one I'm remembering correctly from a great work of literature.  I was thinking of Shakespeare, but perhaps it's from Antigone or Oedipus Rex.  Hmm.

This internet search would have been easier a few years ago, pre-pandemic (the Covid 19 pandemic).  Oh well.  A plague has descended upon our house, our house which has been relocated to Hawaii for what was supposed to be a tropical vacation.  It's not respiratory so far, but it does seem like Norovirus might be a possibility.  Or food poisoning.  I am waiting to see who feels what way this morning.  So far, I am fine.

When we walked through the airport to our gate, I saw and smelled vomit on the concourse where one catches the train between gates at Dulles.  I pulled the mask out of my pocket and kept it on until the plane was in the air.  I was far away from the crew member who collapsed vomiting in the gate area, but my mother was close and unmasked.  But the other family members who were also there haven't yet presented symptoms.  And my dad, who has shared close quarters with my mom, is fine so far.

So, maybe it's food poisoning?  Maybe my dad just has a very powerful immune system, especially for a man in his 80's?  My sister, who helped with my mom, wasn't feeling great last night [Update:  my sister is well this morning--hurrah].  Of all the ways I thought this trip might go haywire, this wasn't one that ranked high.

It could be worse.  We didn't fly Southwest.  It may be worse, when my spouse returns to our North Carolina house.  We've been getting apocalyptic messages about the troubles the Asheville water department has been having while we've been gone.  If the house isn't flooded from frozen/broken pipes, it will have been a good week to be away--we also got pleading texts from the electric company asking us to restrict electric usage.

I have been thinking of other times of plague.  I am thinking of my timeline project for Church History I class.  Part of that assignment was to choose 5 events that were more important than the other 25 events on the timeline that went from the start of the Church until 1500 and write half a page to a page explaining why we chose them.  I chose the arrival of bubonic plague in 1370.  I could write a substantial paper on why it's important, but I do think without a catastrophic event like that one, people's faith would not have been shaken, and we'd have had no Reformation, at least not in 1517 (and yes, I do realize that I'm choosing this date, and reformation urges had been happening at least 100 years previously, but I'm a Lutheran and I mark 1517 as an important Reformation date).

I am willing to bet that I am the only student with plague on her timeline--we didn't talk about it in class, and the textbook only spent a few pages on it.

I also want to record another moment which was enhanced by my Church History I class.  Sunday morning, my spouse was reading his book on John Locke, and he asked me about Arianism.  If I hadn't had the class, and/or if we didn't have Google, we might have assumed that it was a misspelling of the white nation kind of Aryanism.  But I was able to tell him, and from there we had an interesting discussion on Augustine, original sin, Pelagianism, and grace.

My spouse said, "This is why we make a good team."  He's right--and it's now one of my favorite Christmas memories.