Irony

Just one of the many queues experienced
in two months' time. 

Irony usually describes a state of affairs or an event that seems deliberately contrary to what one expects and is often amusing as a result. It may take some time for it to seem somewhat amusing, but I do see irony in the circumstances surrounding my return from my time in the United Kingdom.

For more than two months, I travelled and lived under circumstances that, in our post-pandemic world, would make even the least germophobic person cringe. Crowded airports, queues/lines, shuttles, standing-room-only underground train cars, buses – and that was just getting there. Then came constant use of public transportation, large group dining, lecture and concert halls, and frequent chapel worship both on and off campus. Not to mention overnight stays in hostels with six to eight strangers in a room, sharing toilet and shower facilities. Shall I go on?

Despite all this, I left the UK in good health. A sleepover in Terminal B of Heathrow Airport, the queues and transfer shuttles were all repeated again on the journey home. Because of scheduling and a desire just to get to my own bed again, rather than Amtrak I rented a car to drive to Harrisburg the evening I landed at Newark International Airport. I was tired and would suffer jetlag to be sure. But I was home again.

Here is the irony. Within days of arriving home and beginning the R & R part of my sabbatical time, it hit. Somewhere, somehow, I contracted a respiratory infection that would lay me low for over a week. It turned out not to be the dreaded COVID virus (I tested negative for over 5 days). Whatever I had put me in a sort of fog and drained me of any real energy. It might have been RSV or something else. I was, as usual, too stubborn to go to the doctor – and what could they do about it anyway. I would just follow the accepted protocols – and drink lots of fluids, get plenty of rest, etc. etc. etc. If the cough worsened, or the congestion persisted, then I would seek medical help.

Finally, I’m over it. I have my wits about me. I think I am back. That bit I wrote about a week ago on radio silence was eerily prescient. But it’s time now for some deeper thinking and I am finally able to do it. Sorry for the delay. I’ll be sending some of those thoughts your way very soon.