Tucson Covid Tales: An Introduction
Twenty years ago, a book of sociology called Bowling Alone hit the shelves, its author astonished by the increasingly solitary nature of Americans and the corresponding decline of community. A reissue of that book today would have to take into account the different, much more profound solitude imposed by the coronavirus, which has forced millions upon millions of people in this country and around the world to take shelter in their homes, often jobless and without resources, and there wait out the Plague. It’s unlike anything we’ve ever seen, and it’s all most of us can do just to cope.
Here at Zócalo, we’ve felt some of the effects of the COVID pandemic. We haven’t printed for months (though we’ll certainly be back in print as soon as we can). We haven’t been to a restaurant or pub since March. We haven’t been out much at all—but when we do go out for supplies, you can bet we’re masked and keep our distance.
The world has changed, utterly, and there’s no telling when it’s going to turn the right way on its axis and allow us to buy a friend a round—following a hug, even. But we’re stubbornly optimistic, taking comfort in the words of former Tucsonan and now national poet laureate Joy Harjo: “Welcome your spirit back from its wandering. It may return in pieces, in tatters. Gather them together. They will be happy to be found after being lost for so long.”
In the weeks that follow, we’re going to deliver a community diary of sorts, made up of articles, essays, poems, songs, and images that record how Tucsonans have been responding to these strange times. We’ve invited many members of our city’s artistic, musical, and literary communities to participate in the media in which they work, and they’ve sent us some wonderful things.
That invitation stands for every Tucsonan, too. Please send us a paragraph or two, a poem, a video clip, a photograph, or some other expression of what you’ve been creating or doing. Offer advice, confess to slothfulness, celebrate having down time, lament the extra burdens that the plague has imposed, share beauty—whatever your response, we’d like to hear from you and consider your work for publication on social media, on our web page, and/or in some future edition of Zócalo.
Stay healthy, stay hearty, and please be sure to join us.
editor@zocalotucson.com
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