14
Southern Tier Life / July 2021 / ISSUE 005
by Sky Moss
off a “main” artery. The likelihood of Walking through a Pandemic contracting the virus through daily walks was, in retrospect, minute. Still It was the first week of January, 2020. it crossed our minds. We become I was attending the annual AHA accustomed to hunkering down (American Historical Association) inside the house, binging Netflix and conference in NYC, NY. My son playing our Wi. That felt safe and had accompanied me and it was responsible. Our children were kept a fantastic career and father and home and trips to the grocery store son experience. Not long after were anxious journeys filled with returning home, accounts of a new fear and joy upon returning home. coronavirus were quietly escaping Eating and drinking helped numb from China. The data and anecdotes the shitiness of reality. were sporadic and compelling. By March the virus had inundated Italy. I have never been the most It was moving west at a rate that responsible eater. My diet is solid was simply impossible to accurately relative to responsibility but I am forecast. As cases entered through not an avatar of consumption both American coasts, it was clear discipline. By the beginning of May to me that an indefinite quarantine 2020, I was putting on pounds and was imminent. As the public schools exhausting like two or three pairs of closed, college campuses shut down sweats and shorts. Growing up an and daily life became a condemning athlete and maintaining that identity digitization, my family adopted a throughout my adult life, this sedentary cryptic reality. Mind you, malaise was making me detest my there was nothing special about body and my habits. Pre-pandemic our condition. In fact, we were I was active on multiple fronts. Our luckier than many. We had the family belongs to a gym 6-8 months resources to function from home, a year. I played basketball routinely continue working in that model and and generally loved to work out support each other emotionally and some. It had all shut down. My wife psychologically. Still, the toxicity of Rebecca started a routine that by the situation was ever-present. mid-May, 2020, had become a ritual. Walking. Her responsible eating We live in a relatively rural has always set the standards for the community. Country roads capillary family. An athlete her entire life as
well, she had reached a pandemic precipice. Her solution was to walk, walk for escape, walk for fitness, walk for distraction and walk for miles. What started as a chore (my weight was up) became a way to forget Covid for an hour. Historically I preferred to jog, I was finished faster and I felt like the cardio benefits were far greater. Initially we were doing three miles a day? That jumped to four, then five and thirteen months later it remains at that level. We take occasional days off, they are rare. We mix in some light jogging and a game of tennis too. Walking through a pandemic, a stressful election, a high school graduation and myriad stressors became an act of protest. It was a defiant gesture directed at a world that was spewing chaos. It sounds corny, I know. It gave us something controllable. It gave us something to rely on. We continue to walk our road. Early in the morning and in the evenings are our favorite times. There are multiple routes now. The two-mile version is the quickest and keeps us on the main artery. After a year we have made tens of drive by friends. These are individuals we do not know personally but wave to us
