The other day I had a client leave a voicemail, looking to come in for a last minute massage. So I checked that nothing was available and gave her a call back. Her family had traveled in from out of town and taken her bedroom so she was sleeping on a recliner (ouch). But I had to tell her that I was all booked up until after the Thanksgiving holiday. She asked would I call her if there was a cancellation and do many people cancel? I said actually it is very possible as sometimes I get a cancellation a day because of possible covid exposure.
There was a pause…”oh…” And I wondered if I had said too much. If I'd scared her. But she repeated that I should call her if there was an opening. I promised I would.
It was only after I got off the phone that I thought about it, 'Did she just tell me that her family had travelled over the busy holiday and were living in her home?’
I wonder sometimes if it's like eating m&ms, or Hershey kisses. We don't realize how many we've eaten until we got the bottom of the bag, or go to throw away ALL of the wrappers. I wonder if it's the same mechanism that has us buy a coffee here or a $5 impulse buy there, wondering where all our money went before we check our bank statement. The same mechanism that minimizes how many people we have contact with and how much danger we are in from Covid-19 exposure. The CDC tells us not to travel and not to gather with people outside of your house. But it's only two people… forgetting the contact with hundreds of other travelers to get to their destination. Forgetting that every contact you make after that, exposes more lives to the risk of those two travelers. And only realizing it when someone turns up positive for covid-19.
But that's only one example of the way we minimize and forget the danger of infection. I have heard plenty of other examples from my clients and people in the office, enough to make me nervous about my own perceived safety. About a month ago I had made the decision to not take clients in the week after Thanksgiving. Being out of work is never an easy decision. Now I kinda wish I'd taken a second week off, so that those infected during the holiday get more of a chance to develop symptoms so they can choose to stay home instead of getting a massage. Because more than just the fear of getting sick myself, is the fear that I become a vector of infection.
I wear a mask and I sanitize as much as I can in my business. I self isolate to minimize my own personal exposure. But I can only hope that my clients make good decisions and stay away from my business when they are at high risk for contracting covid. Because if someone brings me covid, it's possible I could spread it to every client I touch. That's the reality.
I hope that my clients do have a Happy Thanksgiving. Whatever choice they make about how much contact they have with people outside of their own household, is their own. I hope that it's a safe one for themselves, and for all the people in their lives. Even their service workers.