Asheville, NC elevated city skyline, view from my house.
I live in Asheville, NC in Buncombe County. Normally, this is a tourist hot spot because Asheville is surrounded by the Blue Ridge Mountains. People visit our city from all over the world to enjoy the beauty of the Great Smokies. I moved here 15 years ago to take advantage of the natural beauty, hiking, kayaking, white water rafting and zip lining. Asheville was also a literary destination for me because of it’s mountain artist’s and writer’s community. Thomas Wolfe wrote Look Homeward Angel while living here, and F. Scott Fitzgerald and wife Zelda spent much of their writing days in these mountains, as did Carl Sandburg. Other well-known contemporary writers such as Sara Gruen (author of Water for Elephants) and Charles Frazier (author of Cold Mountain) live here.
Extraordinary Times Require Extraordinary Measures
Suddenly, the magic and wonder of this beautiful place morphed into stark reality in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. In order to slow the spread, the Board of Commissioners ordered “all individuals anywhere in Buncombe County to stay at home,” beginning Thursday March 26 through 6 a.m. Thursday, April 9. The declaration’s restrictions include a ban on all public and private gatherings outside of a single living unit, a prohibition of all elective medical procedures and an end to hotel and short-term rental bookings for leisure travel.
Buncombe County issued an official declaration closing "gyms, fitness centers and exercise facilities, indoor pools, spas, movie theaters, live performance venues and arcades" until further notice. The order allows many essential activities, including outdoor exercise, but closes non-essential businesses and requires that individuals in shared or outdoor spaces “must at all times as reasonably as possible maintain social distancing of at least six feet from any other person when they are outside their residence.” Religious and worship services are limited to video and telephonic gatherings, and elective medical procedures are prohibited. Failure to comply with this declaration is a Class 2 misdemeanor.
On the heels of the county order, NC Governor Roy Cooper issued an Executive Order that extends a statewide Stay at Home Order beginning Monday, March 30 at 5 p.m. until April 29th for everyone to stay home for 30 days. North Carolina is now considered to have widespread transmission of the virus, which means people who have tested positive cannot trace where they were exposed to the virus. In a further step to slow the spread of COVID-19, the order directs residents to stay at home except to visit essential businesses, to exercise outdoors or to help a family member. The order bans gatherings of more than 10 people and directs everyone to physically stay at least six feet apart from others. At the March 26th press conference, the Governor underscored that three North Carolinians have died due to COVID-19 and the state has 763 confirmed cases of the coronavirus in 60 counties.
So as a tourist city, where normally people vacation this time of year to hike the trails and camp or enjoy the mountain laurel, waterfalls and blooming Rhododendron, Asheville and the surrounding area looks like a ghost town. Haywood Street, one of the busiest streets in downtown Asheville, is deserted. My neighbors and close friends have a second home here and just immigrated from New Orleans where community spread has been intense. Like all other visitors from other states such as New York or Washington, they are required to self-quarantine for 14 days on their arrival.
This week my spouse and I made our weekly run for groceries. For the first time, we donned masks and gloves and tried to get to the grocery store right when it opened at 7:00 a. m. to avoid large crowds. But when we got there, a line of customers was already waiting to get in. I was pleased to see a sign that Ingle’s supermarket had dedicated its first shopping hour from 7-8:00 a.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays for senior shoppers, those with compromised immune systems and first-responders. Remaining 6 feet from other shoppers, we wheeled our cart around the aisles, many of which were totally empty. Most notable was the absence of paper products—toilet tissue, paper towels and Kleenex. The bread and baked goods were also bare. And disinfectants, hygiene products and hand sanitizers were nowhere to be found. Surprisingly, though, milk and dairy products were abundant.
Dire Circumstances Require Creativity And Collective Selflessness
In some cases fear and panic have bred staunch individualism and separation from the common good. In rural regions of neighboring Graham County, local officials have set up traffic checkpoints and road closures to restrict access to residential areas. Nonresidents must have permits to enter neighborhoods where residents say they need protection in order to preserve their access to EMS. But amid 136 statewide price gouging complaints and reports of hoarding, fraud and scams, there have been many incidences of collective selflessness—where people are thinking about and taking care of others in small and big ways.
I went through a Starbucks drive-thru and ordered my typical double shot latte. At the pick-up window when the I tried to pay the cashier, she waved me away, saying the person in the car in front of me had already paid for my order. I had a burst of good feelings that created a domino effect. I told her I wanted to pay for the customer’s order behind me. Another burst of good feelings, known as “paying it forward.” I suspect the persons in front and behind me had similar natural highs. Small gestures during hard times can assuage a little of the worry and concern. Later in the day when I was doing my own writing I ran across a book online titled, The Woman Warrior by Maxine Hong Kingston with one of her quotes underneath, “In a time of destruction, create something.”
And that’s what’s happening here at the local supermarket, Starbucks and all over the city and state. In the wake of panic, death and grief, people are creating something wonderful. Krispy Kreme is giving health care providers one dozen of glazed donuts every Monday. Every Tuesday Taco Bell is offering one free dorito taco to everyone. And a furniture upholstery company is donating time and material to make masks for medical personnel. Local psychotherapist Edith Langley, who owns a 60-acre alpaca farm outside of the city, told me, “We’re supporting local farmers since we can’t go to the farmer’s market to purchase produce, and they can’t sell their products. We’re picking up a weekly box of fresh vegetables from their front porch. And it’s a win-win proposition for all of us.”
Overall, there’s a kindness in the mountain air here. I’ve witnessed so many acts of collective selflessness that it’s heartwarming. People seem to be more thoughtful and respectful than usual. I keep hearing, “We’re all in this together.” And when we come together, even in our separation from one another, that’s a huge silver lining in the ravages of COVID-19—a great example of creating something in a time of destruction.
“There are sides of us that are quite brutal and selfish, but nature has given us many gifts among them something known as the helper’s high: the neurobiology of helping others.”—Jason Silva, Venezuelan-American filmmaker
