If you live in a cave, you might not know yet that the NBA has suspended its season after a player on the Utah Jazz tested positive for coronavirus. And Tom and Rita Hanks also have tested positive.

I’m thinking about my own response to COVID in a few different ways:

• my attitude, or spirit, or disposition
• my mind, or perspective
• my state of being, or soul

I don’t know if a theologian or philosopher would quibble with differentiating between spirit and soul, but the distinction is clear to me :)

In terms of my spirit, I found this passage from a daily Lenten devotional helpful:

“If you remove the yoke from your midst — the pointing of the finger and all malicious talk — and if you give yourself to the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted, then your light will rise in darkness and your gloom will become like midday. And the Lord will continually guide you, and satisfy your desire in scorched places, and give strength to your bones; and you will be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water whose waters do not fail.”

That’s from the book of Isaiah, chapter 58, verses 9-11. May it be so.

Second, I found this editorial from National Review to be a balanced frame of mind:

“Every American should want President Trump and his administration to handle the coronavirus epidemic effectively and successfully. Those who seem eager to see the president fail and to call every administration misstep a fiasco risk letting their partisanship blind them to the demands not only of civic responsibility but of basic decency

… At the same time, however, it is important that the president’s defenders not be blinded by partisanship of their own into excusing failures of leadership and diminishing the danger of the epidemic itself. This can be particularly difficult because some of the most significant inadequacies of the administration have been the president’s own. So far in this crisis, Donald Trump himself has obviously failed to rise to the challenge of leadership, and it does no one any favors to pretend otherwise.”

I recommend reading the whole thing.

The president’s address tonight, unfortunately, did not inspire a lot of confidence.

And third, in terms of my soul, I want to find balance as well. This is probably the trickiest part, because it involves opening my heart to suffer with those who suffer, a tenet of my Christian faith, while also maintaining joy in the midst of darkness.

So that means I do not try to run away from emotions like this:

And yet, in the midst of such darkness, I think it’s important to seek out opportunities to laugh. I listened to Conan O’Brien’s podcast with my oldest two kids on the way to school this morning, and it was good for my soul to crack up with them. And what good am I to others if I’m not able to chuckle in the face of misfortune?

There is a model to follow, as much as possible, in our national response: China’s.

I read this interview with the lead WHO investigator who was in China observing their response to the virus, and it’s an instructive read. I’d add it to the list of articles I linked to yesterday that have been most insightful on how our public response should go.

New cases in China have dropped to about 200 a day, from more than 3,000 in early February. The numbers may rise again as China’s economy begins to revive. But for now, far more new cases are appearing elsewhere in the world.

China’s counterattack can be replicated, Dr. Aylward said, but it will require speed, money, imagination and political courage.

The Times reporter asked Aylward this question: “Are the cases in China really going down?”

His answer:

I know there’s suspicion, but at every testing clinic we went to, people would say, “It’s not like it was three weeks ago.” It peaked at 46,000 people asking for tests a day; when we left, it was 13,000. Hospitals had empty beds.

I didn’t see anything that suggested manipulation of numbers. A rapidly escalating outbreak has plateaued, and come down faster than would have been expected. Back of the envelope, it’s hundreds of thousands of people in China that did not get Covid-19 because of this aggressive response.

Also, if you know people who are still trying to minimize the virus or blame the media for over-hyping it – following the president’s unfortunate example – send them this piece from Megan McArdle.

Before events cascaded tonight, there was positive action today. Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, a Republican, mandated that the NCAA play its first four March Madness games in Dayton next week without fans. Later in the day the NCAA announced they would play their entire tournament without fans. It’s probably reasonable to wonder if there will be more positive tests that require the tournament’s cancellation.

The Big 10 and Big 12 were the first major conferences to announce they’ll start playing conference tournaments without fans in the building.

And the Golden State Warriors did the same, saying they’ll play without fans for 10 days and then reevaluate. Hard decisions, but necessary. And honestly, I find it encouraging that leaders and organizations are acting more decisively.

Still, despite a recommendation from the DC Department of Health that mass gatherings of 1,000 or more people be postponed or cancelled, Wizards and Capitals owner Ted Leonsis said Wednesday that their games, as well as concerts, will “go on as scheduled and be open to spectators.”

That probably won’t last.

I’m still gonna write about that Malkmus album. Stay tuned ;)