People seem to announce that they are "on quarantine" frequently these days. I'm not sure exactly how or what I make of that.
Possible reaction #1 - This person, who I'll call Quarantania, is being responsible and I can respect that. Quarantania is letting others know she may have been exposed and she's being safe as to not spread Coronavirus if she's got it. She's letting others with whom she's been around know that they, too, should be extra vigilant. Or, Quarantania is explaining why she's keeping to herself and not joining anyone at all for a time. This all makes sense.
Possible reaction #2 - Quarantania wants some attention. Since everything seems to be about COVID right now, she knows that announcing her self-imposed quarantine should get some attention. Plus, that invites a whole series of social media posts. They might go like this:
- I'm starting a self-quarantine. This is day 1. Pray for me.
- Day 2 - I'm doing okay, no symptoms yet.
- Day 3 - Hanging in there. Think I'll bake a pie. Watch my livestream here.
- Day 7 - Ughh. How many Hallmark Christmas movies can I watch? #quarantine
- Day 13 - I'm losing my mind!!!!! What are your top quarantine tips? Hit me up! :fire: :fire: :fire:
I think you get the point.
Back in the old days
My father was a child when polio was still a real threat in the U.S. My grandmother had it. They lived in a small, cotton mill town in the American South. It was a mill town. Everyone in the town worked in the mill and the mill owned most of the houses that the workers lived in. Your family switched houses when Dad got a promotion. My grandfather started work in the mill at age 12. So, my father said they lived in every house on the street at some time. Once, they moved into a new house, out of it, then into a different house in the same day. Of the ten children in my father's family, all ten worked in the mill at some time. Grandma did not, as far as I know, because she daily had to chase and catch and whip ten children with a switch (8 wild boys will do this).
But, back to the mill houses. They were small, wooden "shotgun houses". A shotgun house is like a large dog house. It's a post-and-beam "stick house" that has a front door and a rear door. As the saying goes, if you open them both, you could shoot a shotgun straight through the house. Do not try this at home.
My father relayed the days of quarantine as a boy. As he told it, when someone in your family was suspected of the polio, or pertussis or diphtheria or whatever other malady, an official from the health department would make a visit. The official would nail a QUARANTINE sign onto your wooden home. Yes, literally, with hammer and nail, they'd pin the sign to your house or front door. It was a public warning to STAY AWAY. Can you imagine reactions today if a person nailed a sign onto someone else's front door?
A community-wide quarantine happened once while my father was away at summer camp. Though camp had ended, the entire camp was locked down due to polio. When enough lockdown had become enough lockdown, one of the older brothers announced to the siblings, "We're going home." That night, they snuck out of camp, climbed the fence and walked home. At times, you do what you gotta do.
Lessons
Now, there are some lessons here.
There's a social media lesson in this little story. In the 30s and 40s, there was no "social media" as we think of it today, of course. Which begs the question to me..."How did the accusation of 'So-and-so has the whooping cough!'? get relayed to the health official in the first place?" Today, we might underestimate the power of good ol' hearsay gossip. Especially in a small town, the network of whispers from ear-to-ear can hold its own against any network of bits and bytes. Add to that the power of the prayer group. You want to get the word going around fast? Start a conversation like this at the local, ladies prayer group:
"We need to pray for Sally."
"What's going on with Sally?"
"Well, I'm not sure, but I think she might be having marriage troubles?"
"Oh no! What kind?"
"Well, I saw her coming out of Billy Joe's house the other day. At 6 o'clock in the morning!"
"Really?!:"
"Yep. And her husband's truck was no where to be found. She came and went on her own!"
"Ooh whee! We better let everybody know so we can pray for her!"
Gossip is the original social media, and understand, as long as there are people, it will thrive.
A second lesson involves stigma and pride. My father told me that no one on the "Mill Hill" (the hill that held the village of shotgun houses) no one ever wanted that QUARANTINE sign. It was shameful. It meant unclean and unhealthy. That was likely entirely unfair, but that connotation was also nailed up there with the sign.
My father pointed out that whenever a sign went up, the razzing would begin immediately. The kids lived more in the streets than in houses, so, thanks to the social media of chit-chat, a quarantine was immediately known by everyone. Whichever kid had just gotten quarantined was in for two weeks of "Hah! Hah! Hah! You on lock-down!" The funny thing was that eventually, that sign hit everyone on the Mill Hill. If Johnny got quarantined today, you'd better laugh at him now while you can. Because, next month, it just might be you.
My point here is that, back then, quarantine had a stigma. You didn't want it. Today, a quarantine seems to be thrown around like a badge of honor. I'm really not sure when this changed. Certainly it's good to not have a stigma behind announcing one's quarantine. That stigma was unfair then, and we don't want to discourage people from being clear and up front about this now. To hide possible risks could be unsafe.
I suppose what bothers me is that there seems, at times, to be pride underlying some announcements of quarantine. In my view, that's never really a good place from which to start.