Experiencing an ordeal alone together

A few of my own thoughts, of a more philosophical nature, from our visit to the grocery store this morning (see Sarah’s blog entry before this one):

It was good to get out of the house because I was going a bit stir-crazy at home. It was good to see our neighborhood, at least the main road we travel often, still intact. And it was good to see other people, even though we didn’t know any of them.

But as we all stood in line, almost silently, to go through the checkout, it occurred to me that we had all been through a terrible ordeal. What had happened here yesterday affected all of us perhaps in different ways, but in one common way, we were all probably trapped in our homes yesterday, getting stir-crazy like me, and needing something very basic, very human – food. So we had all come out this morning to restock our food supplies at the same place. But because we were strangers, we couldn’t talk to each other about these experiences, about the terrible ordeal the neighborhood, city and country had been through. And we especially couldn’t talk about it because the topic was politics and it was political. Any conversations that might have taken place might have led to people asking each other, “Whom do you support?” or “Whom did you vote for?” This country is so divided along political party lines and tribal lines.

Perhaps lingering tension in the air prevented us from talking to each other as well. But it was strange – all of us having gone through something together, the aftermath of the same event, yet separated in our own homes, and having come together for a common purpose and because of a common need – to get more food in our kitchens again quickly. Yet we couldn’t name or talk to each other about what was happening. This must be the same feeling of having gone through a terrible ordeal together as communities that have experienced natural disasters or in something like the L.A. riots.

There was the basic, usual level of civility at the grocery store this morning. The store was very crowded, but people managed to get what they needed in an orderly way. There seemed to be a prevailing feeling that all people were there to do was their weekly shopping, which they weren’t able to do over the weekend because the stores were closed. In this type of situation, especially with continued uncertainty about the situation this week – if the unrest will continue while the situation remains unresolved – I would expect people to have a hoarding mentality. I sort of had it myself. The uncertainty and apprehension I was feeling was pushing me to buy a lot more to stock extra food in case I got trapped in the house again. But people didn’t seem to be doing this, so I didn’t either.