Opinion column
by Mary Rupert
Some readers have expressed a concern about me being out in the public a lot. Thanks for your concern, but I really don’t go out that much as a rule, anyway. Like many other people at home, I think that reading is one of the things that can make the “stay-at-home” experience better.
As are many editors, I am mostly at a computer all day. I have already been at home for several years. The tasks have changed a little with a small online-only publication. I could make an argument that I am “essential” based on all the guidelines, but I would just as soon stay at home. Currently, I am trying to work from home, using email, telephone and videos of meetings.
While many of you have been staying at home for five days, I have been at home for 16 days now, just inside and in the front and back yard. I decided earlier this month, since I am 65 years old, that I would not go out unnecessarily because of the risk of COVID-19 to the older population. Science is not my strongest subject, but I understood that being around large groups of people or in close proximity to people was a serious risk.
This month, the last time I went out was on March 13, when I was in a car doing a drive-through transaction, and didn’t get out of the car. Before that, the last time I was out was March 7, for the opening day of Wyandotte County Lake, when I went there in late morning, after the crowds thinned out, and I kept my distance from everyone.
I do miss having the freedom to go to a restaurant and have a meal inside, to go to church, or to go shopping for various items once in a while. Mostly, I don’t look at the stay-at-home order as a hardship, but as a good reason not to have to go out, because I like being home. I hope to go out again to restaurants or to cover a few events when we get the “all-clear,” if ever.
A lot of my hobbies already were indoor activities. I have always liked to read, and that hasn’t changed at all through the years, although I am now reading books online as well as in print.
In January, I was reading a paperbook from the 1970s that I had on my shelf for a number of years, “Humboldt’s Gift” by Saul Bellow. Set mostly in Chicago, the book involves a valuable manuscript left as an inheritance by a writer to a fellow writer. It’s sort of a stretch for most writers to imagine that an unpublished manuscript could be worth very much; that would be like winning Powerball for most.
Also recently, I read a newer book that was a holiday gift from my son. It was a collection of mysteries by Allison Golden, a contemporary writer with ties to England and California. It had a style that moved along at a fast clip and the style was reminiscent of a past famous mystery writer.
Then, in February, I was reading some collected short stories by Henry James that I had not read previously. I enjoyed the elegant writing. I found this collection of short stories on the free website, www.gutenberg.org, where a lot of out-of-print or copyright-free books are posted. Most of these books are over 75 years old, and some of them are classics.
After that, I read “One of Ours” by Willa Cather, also accessing it at www.gutenberg.org. I had read a lot of Cather’s more famous books previously, but this was one I hadn’t read yet. This book was set at the time of World War I, starting with a rural setting in Nebraska and then moving to the war front in Europe. I thought it was fascinating to see what the Midwest was like 100 years ago. Overall, the book was pretty sad. This is not a good escapist book for those trying to avoid COVID-19, as part of it details the Spanish flu epidemic’s effect a hundred years ago.
Last year, I was reading some collected essays of Mark Twain while I was sitting around in a waiting room. I was reading this on my cell phone through an Internet browser connection to www.gutenberg.org. It was a great change of mood from the glum expressions on the others’ faces in the waiting room. However, later on I discovered that reading on my cell phone was using up all the minutes available on it, and I had to stop that practice. Instead, I started reading on a Kindle that was a gift from my family.
In mid-March, around March 17, I moved on to a paperback novel I had on the shelf. I had started it earlier and then left midway through the book. Written by an Irish writer in the 1970s, it’s mostly about old rural ways of life giving way to urban expansion. I’m still in the middle of that 600-page book.
Currently, the Kansas City, Kansas, Public Library buildings are closed through April 6, but fortunately for local residents, the library has a good program where readers can access books and movies online, and read or view them on various devices such as computers, tablets, phones and Kindles. If you haven’t used it before, some information is at https://wyandotteonline.com/public-library-books-movies-and-other-services-are-available-online/. The library’s website at https://ecommunity.kckpl.org/ is open when nearly everything else has closed. You need a KCKPL library card, but you can get one online at the same web address.
Readers also can purchase e-books at several major websites, including major bookstores’ websites. Or you can order books and have them delivered. Quite often these websites have sales on books.
There’s really no excuse for not reading, even when you have a “stay-at-home” order. What are you reading?
Mary Rupert is the editor of the Wyandotte Daily. She may be reached at [email protected].