“The Plague” never became a real concept for me until we went to Venice for the second part of our honeymoon.  We kept seeing bird masked people everywhere, as pictured above.  I learned that they were stationed as warnings for people to turn back, because the town had been struck by the Bubonic plague.  Being part Native American, I was always more than aware of the fact that disease was what really wiped out the majority of North American Indians, way before Europeans could even reach their settlements.  Serious airborne disease has always been frightening to me.  In an episode of “Downton Abbey” the Dowager Duchess recounted hearing of a “mask” in Paris where half of the attendants dropped dead before it was over.  I believe she was referring to the cholera outbreak of 1832.  This was of course before the “Spanish Influenza” of 1918 broke out.  Growing up I cannot say I had really heard of a terrible epidemic, with the exception of polio.  My father was born in in 1932 and contracted it just three days after he was born.  My folks were big believers in vaccines, and growing up I never thought too much of it.  As an adult I became aware of an “anti-vaxxer” movement where some “celebrity” claimed their child became autistic from “too many shots.”  I know that spooked a lot of people who then became fearful of vaccines.  When COVID struck, I had two immediate family members to worry over — my husband and our little girl.  After a year into this virus, I met a girl who had lost her husband to COVID.  Everyone was wearing masks, separated by plastic “shields,” but it did not matter.  I became fearful to allow my child to attend school (despite all the safety measures in place) and yet I was also afraid of leaving her at home in front of a screen all day.  I kept thinking of how recess was a highlight in my day as a kid.  I could sing, play tetherball, jump rope, and swing with my closest friends freely on the blacktop.  My husband and I both received two doses of Moderna (as that was what was available to us at the time) and our ten year old has received a full vaccine as well.  My husband and I have also received one booster.  Dutifully, I had “proper” masks for our little family when we flew again on an airplane, and only after we had all been vaccinated.  When the pandemic initailly hit over two years ago, our little one referred to hand sanitizer as “hanitizer,” which I truly wish I’d trademarked.  Admittedly I have let my travel section here fall short, although I would say our family has been hyper-viligant about travel safety.  Our beach trips, which I have yet to write about, up until this year have been road trips.  We have yet to resume traveling abroad.  At the depth of the Great Depression, Franklin D. Roosevelt, helped the American people regain faith in themselves by saying in his Inaugural Address, “the only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”  I have truly lived in fear of catching COVID, and I have been in even greater fear of my family somehow contracting it.  Recently our return flight from Tampa to Dallas got canceled, and we had a twelve hour wait at the airport.  It was pizza oven hot — even for Native Texans such as ourselves.  I confess I was stressed and got lax, allowing myself and my family to drop their masks both in the airport and on the airplane.  And now we have all had Covid; heaven only knows what variant.  Fortunately it was like having a cold.  Of course I am well aware we have all been admonished to avoid this disease like “the Plague.”  We live in dangerous times all around our world.  A powerful Persian King, who called his wisemen sages, once asked for the one quote that would be accurate at all times and in all situations.  King Solomon was so impressed by the quote he had it inscribed into a ring.  The phrase was, “this too shall pass.”  Dear readers take heart:  this too shall pass.