A message from our First Selectman regarding COVID-19 and sad news.

As men, we are all equal in the presence of death.

                                                                                                              Publilius Syrus, Roman Writer (~100 BC) 

I have no interest in being maudlin.  Quite simply, I do not know what to say.  I am horribly sad.  I am heartbroken.  We were doing okay.  Deep River was holding steady.  I had convinced myself that continued effort could get us through unscathed.  I was wrong.   I have asked Jonathan to help express our thoughts:

In theory, the unexpected loss of one human being is as worthy of mourning as any other.

In theory, the loss of a single human being is equally tragic as the loss of ten, or one hundred, or one thousand.

In theory, the passing of a citizen of China or of Italy, or of England is as deserving of our thoughts and prayers as a resident of Michigan or Connecticut, just as saddening as the departure of someone in Fairfield, or New Haven, or Hartford, or one somewhere closer: Clinton, perhaps, or Chester.

We wince, or sigh, or weep, when confronted with death, death on a global scale, in numbers that test the limits of believability, and in such dizzying succession that numbness threatens our minds.  But there is something within us—a drawing together, a heightened sense of community, of being part of an extended family, this heterogeneous group, assembled largely at random, as much by chance as by design—there is a reflexive force that causes us to pull up sharply on the reins, that sucks away the breath, when one of our own succumbs.  Now Deep River has known its first covid-19 death.

We might have wished that our family, our community, our town could have been spared.  It was not to be.

I began to relax.  I know our message has always been not to do so.  We have consistently suggested that we hold the course.  We now have a grim reminder that we are not through this challenge and that we need to continue to wear our masks, to keep our distance, to remember that science, more than politics, is where we find the real answers.

Lots of news, and lots of messages to follow.  This evening, though, let us think of our neighbors and say a prayer for our neighbor, and our neighbor’s family.

Peace,

Angus