Letters to the Editor: L.A.’s reopening is wracking some people with anxiety

To the editor: Stop it with all this hope. Yes, it’s been a year of waiting, and yes, it appears that the end is in sight — but now that there’s hope, and now that we’re talking about reopening movie theaters and indoor dining and time is speeding up, it’s making me anxious. (“L.A. County to reopen indoor restaurants, gyms, movie theaters as early as Monday,” March 11)

I’m starting to get the same dreadful sensation I used to get on Sunday night or at the end of a vacation. It’s the sensation that everything is happening, and it’s happening too fast.

I get it: We finally have hope that the pandemic will end. But when it does end, will I actually have to start doing things in the world again? Because I’m not sure I’m ready for that. More seriously, I don’t want to lose what I learned about true and productive “idleness.”

Robert Nashak, Los Angeles

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To the editor: As Los Angeles County gets ready to relax restrictions, I shudder to think of the forthcoming surge in COVID-19 cases. Anti-maskers and anti-vaxxers contribute to this anxiety with a continued rocky rollout of the vaccine, even with President Biden’s optimism that we will be able to celebrate July 4 together.

I also bristle at that letter from a reader in North Dakota claiming success at keeping that state’s schools open. How farcical is that letter when the student population of the Los Angeles Unified School District isn’t much smaller than all of North Dakota?

Los Angeles is not North Dakota, and solutions that work in sparsely populated areas cannot be compared to the largest county in the country.

I long for the day when I can get my vaccination and for a time when we won’t have to bicker over who handled the public’s safety better.

Wendy Winter, Altadena

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To the editor: The past year has been long and difficult. As a senior, I felt that I had a target on my back.

In 2020, my avocations of singing in the church choir and visiting residents in long-term care facilities abruptly ended. I had to learn how to order food delivered from grocery stores rather than shopping myself, but what I ordered was not always what I received.

I couldn’t fly to visit my son, daughter-in-law and five grandchildren in Northern California on their birthdays. I missed going to theaters, museums, church and restaurants.

Feeling isolated, I learned how to use Zoom. I phoned those friends who are not computer literate. I enrolled in several online classes and now practice Tai Chi Chih and chair Yoga. I took a Zoom classes on poetry on creative writing.

However, Zoom is a poor substitute for physical touch.

Rosemary Lewallen, Cypress