Love in the Time of Timid Hearts

“Together they had overcome the daily incomprehension, the instantaneous hatred, the reciprocal nastiness, and fabulous flashes of glory in the conjugal conspiracy. It was time when they both loved each other best, without hurry or excess, when both were most conscious of and grateful for their incredible victories over adversity. Life would still present them with other moral trials, of course, but that no longer mattered: they were on the other shore.”

 ― Gabriel García Márquez, "Love in the Time of Cholera"

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Dear Kate,

Years later when we recount to our progeny 2020 the year of pandemically blurred vision in language sanitized and sane that to satisfy safety mandate for the sake of the feeble in the name of feebler science we cleared shelves closed schools cancelled dances and sealed church doors despite the cries of Esmeralda and shouts of Quasimodo all under the auspices of some god just as helpless or careless or both.

We shall confess it was not a time when we loved each other best, but with hurry and excess, for we were oblivious of--and thus frankly couldn't be thankful for--the incredible victories over adversity that could have been ours to laugh and cry and cry and laugh about all again.

Yours, Alex