Now that the weather has changed, and the CDC has issued what I consider to be extremely confusing and dangerous changes to the masking and social distancing requirements. It is clear that what was intended to be a rather narrow change has turned into something much larger. I don’t know if it is because of this change in “requirements” or just the time of year, but I have noticed an huge spike in the number of folks that I know who are traveling around the country (and around the world). It seems that almost everyone I talk to is heading off on trip, vacation or retreat – or having friends/family come for an extended visit. They are traveling by plane and automobile, but excited about getting to someplace else.

I assume that my friends are not unusual, I suspect this is happening across the country. It looks to me that we are entering a period of “churning”, traveling and mixing up the population of the country, all at a time when the pandemic is very much alive and well, and people are stopping paying attention to any of the safety protocols from the past year. What could possibly go wrong with a thing like this? It feels like a time of extreme danger to me, but clearly it feels like the danger has passed to most people. I sure hope they are correct.