It’s hard to believe we’re past 40 days. I had my first day off during the week in a long time, and it was fairly productive, as days off go. I binge-watched The Night Manager; vacuumed the house and cleaned the bathrooms. Lots of bleach was used. Bleach is so satisfying: you pour it onto the soap scum and like magic, soap scum disappears. My son’s bathroom is the cleanest it has been in about a month and that is saying something. Gross. But I digress.
This post is about the religious experience I had this weekend. I’ve not been grocery shopping in weeks. The last time I went to my local Shop-Rite, it was slim pickings. No variety in the produce section and no cleaning products or paper products. Ground beef was not available. It was depressing. I would leave the store with only half the list.
Because Saturday was a beautiful day, we decided to grill steaks. Steak means shopping at Wegman’s, so I donned my mask and out I went. The line to get into the store appeared to be long, but moving. I even ran into an old friend while waiting in line! People are allowed to enter the store one by one, where they are greeted with a newly disinfected grocery cart. And then you enter the store. Fruit and vegetables as far as the eye can see, every color of the rainbow. Everything you could possibly want was there. I crossed off half the list just in the produce department.
The meat department was a similar experience – all types of meat, steaks and chops and ground beef. Milk and almond milk, yogurt, ice cream; flour tortillas! Black beans! And then – the best part – toilet paper, paper towels AND disinfectant bathroom cleaner!
I left the store, for the first time since we began the era of social distancing, with everything on the list. EVERY. THING.
Oh, friends, it was the closest thing to a religious experience I have had during the pandemic.
What relatively normal things have become religious experiences for you these days?