Gathering
The Holidays are here! A time for gathering together with family, friends, neighbors and co-workers to give thanks, to celebrate and to socialize.
Gathering is an assembly of people coming together for meetings and events, especially for festive and social ones being held for a specific purpose.
As covid-19 continues to ravage our country, gathering together can be hazardous to our health, and to the health of others. Logic dictates that we don’t celebrate with anyone who is not a full-time member of our household. Yet, emotions tug and cajole hard, encouraging us to go forward with festive plans. There are positives and negatives in either decision.
If you are choosing to entertain, or be a guest, the following list may be of assistance to you.
- Limit the number of people
- Stay six feet apart
- Have hand sanitizer available (at least 60% alcohol)
- Require masks when not eating or drinking
- Avoid poorly ventilated spaces
- Place central AC on continuous circulation
- Use hepa filters
- Clean and disinfect frequently touched surfaces
- Use single towels in bathroom or paper towels for hand drying
- Use gloves when removing garbage, trash or recycle bags/containers
- Do not let pets interact with anyone other than immediate household
- Wear a mask while preparing and serving food to guests
- Have one person serve all the food so utensils are not handled by multiple people
- Launder table linens, dishcloths, kitchen and bathroom towels immediately after the event
- Dispose of sponges
- Use no touch trash cans if possible
- Consider plastic utensils, paper cups and plates or a combination of
- Limit people going in and out of areas where food is being prepared
- Check your State and Local government for the latest rules governing size of groups allowed to gather together
- If you are a guest, bring your own hand sanitizer and masks
Recently, I had a small gathering, five people total. The weather dictated indoors. We had three hepa filters (two large which we borrowed) placed in a triangle, and we had three windows cracked open slightly. If we didn’t have the hepa filters, everyone would have been required to wear a mask. Hand sanitizer dispensers were placed in obvious and easily accessible places. Paper towels in the bathroom, and one person plating and serving dinner as well as one person cleaning afterward, were additional protocols. We did not eat together at the dining table, choosing instead to eat our meal distanced from each other, but still able to connect and enjoy each others company.
“This is the power of gathering: it inspires us, delightfully, to be more hopeful, more joyful and thoughtful, in a word, more alive.” ~Alice Waters
“Every gathering of Americans – whether a few on the porch of a crossroads store or massed thousands in a great stadium – is the possessor of a potentially immeasurable influence on the future.” ~Dwight Eisenhower
The above quotes reflect both the positive and negative consequences of our collective behaviors throughout the festive season.
If we want to relish being ‘more alive’, if we want the ‘immeasurable influence on the future’ to not be a continuing upward spiral of casualties, I invite you all to take the necessary precautions suitable to your situation.
Many blessings for a joy-filled Thanksgiving!
