QUARANTINE BLOG #7

April 6, 2020


First, a purely personal piece, and for all of those who have a connection to 117 Shenandoah Avenue in Loch Lynn, Maryland.  Melvin David Sisler and Mary Elizabeth Bittinger were married 74 years ago today.  I don’t remember when I took the picture which appears below, but it was an often repeated scene.  Bonnie, and I, and the JAMM Kids had come to visit from one of our far-flung lodgings, and we were loading the car to drive home.  Mom and Dad always came out with us and watched us drive away.  You could look back and see them standing in the yard, watching until we could no longer see each other.

Back to 1946.  Mom and Dad drove to Cumberland, Maryland, to be married by a clergyman whose name I have forgotten.  April 6 was a Saturday that year.  Their wedding guests were their parents, Stella and Floyd Laudermilk (Dad’s mom and step-dad) and Orville and Grace Bittinger.

They spent their honeymoon night at the Fort Cumberland Hotel. The postcard below is from Dad’s collection.  He wrote the note at the top of the back of the card (If you click on the pictures, they will open up enlarged in a new tab).

👉 In other news, an increasing number of online conversations have claimed to find insidious links between the roll out of 5G wireless networks and coronavirus.  These inciters claim that COVID-19 is a cover up for the health hazards of 5G, which they say, suppresses the immune system.

5G is a wireless mobile network that was deployed in 2019 to help improve telecommunications and mobile connectivity.  It works at a higher wave frequency than its predecessors, but these frequencies have not been found to threaten health in any fashion.

Commenting on those reckless Internet rants, Dr. Michael Head, senior research fellow in global health at the University of Southampton, said: “Conspiracy theorists are a public health danger who once read a Facebook page ...  Groups of people [are] keen to show their ignorance on a topic where they have no helpful expertise, nor any inclination to post useful public health messages.” [emphasis mine]

Dr. Head continued, “The celebrities fanning the flames of these conspiracy theorists should be ashamed.”

One of the unashamed rumormongers is actor Woody Harrelson.   He shared an article about the role of 5G in the coronavirus outbreak on his Instagram profile with the caption: “A lot of my friends have been talking about the negative effects of 5G.  My friend Camilla seems [sic] this to me today and though I haven’t fully vetted it I find it very interesting.”

I haven’t fully vetted it, but I’m going to post it and spread it.  I don’t have the time to investigate whether it is true or not, I don’t know whether it is true or not, but I’m going to post it anyway.

As of the time of this writing, the post is still up at https://www.instagram.com/p/B-cprJ9D0do/ – but note that the comments contain some colorful metaphors.

This irresponsible posting spreads faster than the coronavirus, and in England it has generated attacks on people working in the 5G industry.

And in case you missed it, there is another virus rumor – posts on Facebook and Twitter are suggesting the world could face another disease.  This one, they say, is a new virus called “Hantavirus.”

Hantavirus is not new.  The virus which is transmitted from rodents to humans, and almost never from humans to humans, has been studied at least since 1993.

While we are social distancing ourselves from the loonies, it never ceases to amaze me how someone whose talent is memorizing and repeating lines that other people have been written think they should be heard above the voices of the rest of us.

👉 It is spring break here in Augusta.  Even before coronavirus, students in surrounding counties had the week scheduled off.  This is a regular occurrence which corresponds with the annual golf tour of the Augusta National in a competition called “The Masters.”  The Masters is off, but spring break is on.  The following cartoon is placed to honor my grandson who every day before school asks his mother, “Will you pick me up early today?”

👉 Jesus is speaking: “I tell you not to worry about everyday life – whether you have enough food and drink, or enough clothes to wear. Isn’t life more than food, and your body more than clothing? Look at the birds. They don’t plant or harvest or store food in barns, for your heavenly Father feeds them. And aren’t you far more valuable to him than they are? Can all your worries add a single moment to your life?” (Matthew 6:25-27 New Living Translation).

A couple of days ago, in one of the email devotions she is sending to her flock, my pastor Linda Birchall commented on the word “worry.”  It comes, she told us, from an old English word which carries the idea of “strangling.”  And that is what worry does.  It strangles our trust in the Lord God Almighty, and strangles the peace He gives us which passes all understanding (cf. Philippians 4:7).

Worry, according to The Complete Word Study Dictionary, is “care that brings disruption to the personality and the mind.”  In these upside down times, with coronavirus and Internet rumors, we need to remember the conversation Jesus had with His disciples moments after He told them one of them was a traitor.  “Don’t let this throw you. You trust God, don’t you? Trust me” (John 14:1 – The Message).

Don’t let this throw you.  We trust God, don’t we?  Trust Jesus!

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