Washington State’s county-by-county protocol for covid reopening specifies that more than five hospitalizations per 100,000 persons within a seven-day period sends a county back to Phase 2 shutdown. We’ve edged up to 5.7.

Kit and I, having recently enjoyed dining out and visiting museums, are disappointed. We’re reluctant to resume stringent precautions. But I think doing so is the right thing. A friend, Bill Hunt, sent us the following quote from Martin Luther during a sixteenth century plague. His words summerize what I consider to be my responsibility as a follower of Christ.

“I shall ask God mercifully to protect us. Then I will fumigate, purify the air, administer medicine and take medicine. I shall avoid places and persons where my presence is not needed in order to not become contaminated, and thus perchance inflict and pollute others, and so cause their death as a result of my negligence. If God should wish to take me, he will surely find me. But, I have done what He has expected of me, and so I am not responsible for either my own death or the death of others. If my neighbor needs me, however, I shall not avoid place or person, but will go freely. This is a God-fearing faith because it is neither brash nor foolhardy, and does not tempt God.” Martin Luther