Skip to content
  • About
  • Contact
  • Contribute
  • Book
  • Careers
  • Podcast
  • Recommended
  • Speaking
  • All
  • Physician
  • Practice
  • Policy
  • Finance
  • Conditions
  • .edu
  • Patient
  • Meds
  • Tech
  • Social
  • Video
    • All
    • Physician
    • Practice
    • Policy
    • Finance
    • Conditions
    • .edu
    • Patient
    • Meds
    • Tech
    • Social
    • Video
    • About
    • Contact
    • Contribute
    • Book
    • Careers
    • Podcast
    • Recommended
    • Speaking

A coronavirus confession

Raymond Abbott
Conditions
August 25, 2020
23 Shares
Share
Tweet
Share

I am elderly now, and as a lad, I was raised a Roman Catholic.  That often involved going to confession.

I wondered if confession was still done, part of the faith.  You can see how out of touch I am.  I am here to report confession is alive and flourishing in the church.  In the city where I live, confession is now offered (probably entirely) outside the church itself.  It is a drive-through experience.  You drive into a one-car-width garage, which is attached to the rectory.  The garage is open on both ends.  You drive in, stop in the middle, which is very dark, shut off the engine, and wait.  Not long.  Soon a priest appears from the shadows on the passenger side of your vehicle.  You lower the window and confess your sins to this mysterious figure.  Pretty simple.  Of course, he maintains the approved six-foot distance throughout the confession.

Old as I am, I don’t have a lot of sins to confess, or maybe it is that I can’t remember them.  I can, however, recall sins connected to Coronavirus regulations, the edicts we all deal with.

So I begin.  Bless me, Father, for I have sinned.  I can’t remember how long it has been since my last confession.

When sheltering in place, I continue, was all the rage, I did not comply.  Not at all.  I went out as often as I could.  Usually I went to our nearby McDonald’s for a cup of coffee, carry-out, certainly.  For some reason, our McDonald’s is staffed almost entirely with black people, young and old.  One woman, a boss, I guess, was often unpleasant with persons standing in line like me — not far enough apart, etc.

One day she spoke to me harshly in her angry voice, and I told her she was a very rude young lady.  She ignored me, but she heard what I said.  That’s it for me, I thought when I returned another day.  The good service I was used to would be at an end.  But it didn’t happen that way.  When I returned, the staff was unusually kind to me, and when I sought a coffee refill, which is not free at McDonald’s, I was frequently given a refill gratis.  The way I have it figured, that surly young lady I encountered might well have treated her fellow workers badly too, and probably did.

Telling you of this experience, Father, allows me to speak of the tense times in which we are living in Louisville when it comes to race.  We could become the next Portland, Oregon, which I would regret tremendously.  It ought not to happen, but words may not stop it, and I know both sides of the racial question will lose.  Nobody emerges a winner.  You can make book on that.  The thought of it saddens me.

Also, I must confess, I have not washed my hands as often as I should.  I also pick my nose, and I know as well as the next person I ought not to be touching my face, especially because I don’t wash my hands often.  And when I go to grocery stores or other places of business, there are circles on the floor, some sort of decals, where one ought to stand.  I do not stand within the circles, and the clerks notice and want to say something, give me hell, but they don’t dare.  I do this deliberately, Father.  I am a sinner, no doubt about it.

I am not good about wearing a mask either, and when I walk the city streets, I sometimes encounter young women approaching from the opposite direction.  They have good eyesight — mine not so good these days — and see me approaching without a mask, and they must pass me on a narrow sidewalk and risk contamination from droplets from my orifices.  They wish to avoid this, so they begin to move over toward the curb, and I too move in that direction also, toward the curb, deliberately, and the result is this correctly-adorned lass is often made to go into the street to avoid me.

One time I came face to face with a young woman, and I couldn’t see her mouth behind the designer-quality mask she wore, but I imagine she was cursing me abundantly.  In this case, she turned around and went back the way she came.  I never do this with older women, by the way, or with men.  Men are less likely to be masked anyway, which brings me to this, Father.

I need a haircut; my hair has gotten long.  One chain haircut establishment had a sign out advertising a haircut for $10.  By the time I got there, the sign was down.  The door was locked, standard procedure, I guess, but I was allowed in.  I didn’t have a mask, but I was given one.  Mask in place, I entered and was greeted by a matronly-looking woman who approached me very cautiously, as if I were a leper, but probably because I came in without a mask.  She confronted me with a device I might have in another time taken as a weapon, a small gun.  But I knew better.  It was a thermometer.  She quizzed me extensively about my recent health.  Had I been sick, even slightly?  I told her I was well.  She didn’t look convinced.  I said how I’d seen their $10 sign and asked about today’s price.

“Fourteen dollars,” she told me.

“I am a senior.  Is there not a discount?”

“No discount.  Still $14,” she said.

I offered her yesterday’s price, $10.  The shop was empty, save for one person getting a haircut.  I repeated my offer of $10 and added, “Madame, with the ten-spot, you get to check my prostate health.”

She didn’t comment, nor did she smile.  We didn’t make a deal, and I left.

Father, I still need a haircut.  I asked the priest his name.  Father Maloney, he told me, and he wanted to know if I was through with my confession.  I said I was.

He gave me penance, one Hail Mary, one Our Father.  Pretty light, I thought, and one act of contrition to be said with him now.  So we said the prayer together, and then he said something in a deeper voice than I anticipated.

“Wear your mask, sir, at all times.  It is the right thing to do.”

Well, he didn’t say, “the Christian thing to do.”

Raymond Abbott is a social worker and novelist.

Image credit: Shutterstock.com 

Prev

How the COVID-19 pandemic highlights the need for social media training in medical education 

August 24, 2020 Kevin 0
…
Next

Stuttering: Understanding the neurobiology, psychology, and treatment options

August 25, 2020 Kevin 0
…

Tagged as: COVID, Infectious Disease

Post navigation

< Previous Post
How the COVID-19 pandemic highlights the need for social media training in medical education 
Next Post >
Stuttering: Understanding the neurobiology, psychology, and treatment options

More by Raymond Abbott

  • The regret of leaving an old friend behind

    Raymond Abbott
  • In social work, small actions make a big difference

    Raymond Abbott
  • A priest, a police officer, and tragedy

    Raymond Abbott

Related Posts

  • Opening schools? The devil is in the details. 

    Raghav Gupta, MD
  • An outdated law is limiting our coronavirus response

    Leah Hampson Yoke, PA-C
  • Approach the gun violence epidemic like we do with coronavirus

    Charles Nozicka, DO
  • Coronavirus and my doctor daughter

    Carol Ewig
  • Inside the $1.9 trillion coronavirus stimulus bill is a political time bomb for Republicans

    Robert Laszewski
  • Coronavirus highlights why America needs a national medical license

    Marcel Brus-Ramer, MD, PhD

More in Conditions

  • Breaking down barriers: How technology is improving diabetes management in underserved communities

    Anonymous
  • Yoga and self-care won’t cure my Crohn’s disease

    Kristen L. Cole
  • What causes fainting and how to prevent it during needle procedures

    Jean Paul Brutus, MD
  • Healing through love and spirituality

    John T. James, PhD
  • Lifestyle change: the forgotten solution in health care

    Tyler Petersen
  • Breaking the cycle of childhood obesity

    Martin C. Young, MD
  • Most Popular

  • Past Week

    • Resetting the doctor-patient relationship: Navigating the challenges of modern primary care

      Jeffrey H. Millstein, MD | Physician
    • Nobody wants this job. Should physicians stick around?

      Katie Klingberg, MD | Physician
    • From physician to patient: one doctor’s journey to finding purpose after a devastating injury

      Stephanie Pearson, MD | Physician
    • An unspoken truth about non-compete clauses in medicine

      Harry Severance, MD | Policy
    • Fostering the next (diverse) generation of clinicians

      Imamu Tomlinson, MD, MBA | Physician
    • Healing through love and spirituality

      John T. James, PhD | Conditions
  • Past 6 Months

    • The hidden dangers of the Nebraska Heartbeat Act

      Meghan Sheehan, MD | Policy
    • The fight for reproductive health: Why medication abortion matters

      Catherine Hennessey, MD | Physician
    • The vital importance of climate change education in medical schools

      Helen Kim, MD | Policy
    • Resetting the doctor-patient relationship: Navigating the challenges of modern primary care

      Jeffrey H. Millstein, MD | Physician
    • Nobody wants this job. Should physicians stick around?

      Katie Klingberg, MD | Physician
    • Why are doctors sued and politicians aren’t?

      Kellie Lease Stecher, MD | Physician
  • Recent Posts

    • Rescuing primary care: the role of health administrators [PODCAST]

      The Podcast by KevinMD | Podcast
    • Breaking down barriers: How technology is improving diabetes management in underserved communities

      Anonymous | Conditions
    • From penicillin to digital health: the impact of social media on medicine

      Homer Moutran, MD, MBA, Caline El-Khoury, PhD, and Danielle Wilson | Social media
    • Healing the damaged nurse-physician dynamic

      Angel J. Mena, MD and Ali Morin, MSN, RN | Policy
    • How to overcome telemedicine’s biggest obstacles

      Harvey Castro, MD, MBA | Physician
    • Deaths of despair: an urgent call for a collective response to the crisis in U.S. life expectancy

      Mohammed Umer Waris, MD | Policy

Subscribe to KevinMD and never miss a story!

Get free updates delivered free to your inbox.


Find jobs at
Careers by KevinMD.com

Search thousands of physician, PA, NP, and CRNA jobs now.

Learn more

Leave a Comment

Founded in 2004 by Kevin Pho, MD, KevinMD.com is the web’s leading platform where physicians, advanced practitioners, nurses, medical students, and patients share their insight and tell their stories.

Social

  • Like on Facebook
  • Follow on Twitter
  • Connect on Linkedin
  • Subscribe on Youtube
  • Instagram

CME Spotlights

From MedPage Today

Latest News

  • Investigational ALS Drug May Have Clinical Benefit, FDA Staff Says
  • Cases of Deadly Fungus Tripled in Past Few Years, CDC Says
  • Small Gains in Cardiorespiratory Fitness Track With Improved Longevity
  • Improved OS With Hyperfractionated RT in Recurrent Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma
  • GPT-4 Is Here. How Can Doctors Use Generative AI Now?

Meeting Coverage

  • Rapid Improvement in Atopic Dermatitis With Topical PDE4 Inhibitor
  • New Approaches in the Bladder-Sparing Paradigm
  • Response Rates in Hidradenitis Suppurativa Continue to Climb With New Therapies
  • Another Win for a JAK Inhibitor in Alopecia Areata
  • Biologic Switch Revs Up Response in Plaque Psoriasis
  • Most Popular

  • Past Week

    • Resetting the doctor-patient relationship: Navigating the challenges of modern primary care

      Jeffrey H. Millstein, MD | Physician
    • Nobody wants this job. Should physicians stick around?

      Katie Klingberg, MD | Physician
    • From physician to patient: one doctor’s journey to finding purpose after a devastating injury

      Stephanie Pearson, MD | Physician
    • An unspoken truth about non-compete clauses in medicine

      Harry Severance, MD | Policy
    • Fostering the next (diverse) generation of clinicians

      Imamu Tomlinson, MD, MBA | Physician
    • Healing through love and spirituality

      John T. James, PhD | Conditions
  • Past 6 Months

    • The hidden dangers of the Nebraska Heartbeat Act

      Meghan Sheehan, MD | Policy
    • The fight for reproductive health: Why medication abortion matters

      Catherine Hennessey, MD | Physician
    • The vital importance of climate change education in medical schools

      Helen Kim, MD | Policy
    • Resetting the doctor-patient relationship: Navigating the challenges of modern primary care

      Jeffrey H. Millstein, MD | Physician
    • Nobody wants this job. Should physicians stick around?

      Katie Klingberg, MD | Physician
    • Why are doctors sued and politicians aren’t?

      Kellie Lease Stecher, MD | Physician
  • Recent Posts

    • Rescuing primary care: the role of health administrators [PODCAST]

      The Podcast by KevinMD | Podcast
    • Breaking down barriers: How technology is improving diabetes management in underserved communities

      Anonymous | Conditions
    • From penicillin to digital health: the impact of social media on medicine

      Homer Moutran, MD, MBA, Caline El-Khoury, PhD, and Danielle Wilson | Social media
    • Healing the damaged nurse-physician dynamic

      Angel J. Mena, MD and Ali Morin, MSN, RN | Policy
    • How to overcome telemedicine’s biggest obstacles

      Harvey Castro, MD, MBA | Physician
    • Deaths of despair: an urgent call for a collective response to the crisis in U.S. life expectancy

      Mohammed Umer Waris, MD | Policy

MedPage Today Professional

An Everyday Health Property Medpage Today iMedicalApps
  • Terms of Use | Disclaimer
  • Privacy Policy
  • DMCA Policy
All Content © KevinMD, LLC
Site by Outthink Group

Leave a Comment

Comments are moderated before they are published. Please read the comment policy.

Loading Comments...