Book Clubs :: In the Days of COVID-19

As you know, I am in a very serious book club as described here and here and here. In more than 12 years, there has never been a crisis so big that my Sistas and I have not met. So coronavirus and social distancing be damned, this week’s book club could not be stopped by COVID-19.

That said, Google Meet to the rescue. For the very first time, our book club had a virtual meeting to discuss the month’s book, this month – Cutting for Stone.

{Side bar: A few years ago, we decided to start selecting one book per year that would be a re-read for most of us. We decided we’d like to re-read one of our all-time favorites to see how our thoughts and opinions may have changed over time. Cutting for Stone was this year’s re-read selection.}

Let me say that the decision to host our gathering virtually was hard. We value our time together so much, and a couple of us were begging for non-social distancing, but for the good of our community, for the good of our families, for the good of each other, we opted to comply with the guidance we’ve been given.

{Second Side Bar: I work in healthcare, and I’ve spent the majority of the last two weeks in our system’s incident command center leading our COVID communications. There is no one who understands more the importance of flattening the curve. And because I’ve been sequestered in a command center, there is no one who needed more some really quality non-COVID downtime.}

We weren’t sure what to expect, but it turned out remarkably well! Our book club’s ability to bond in spite of social distancing is alive and well! There were a few technical difficulties, but once those were worked out, we were on to discussion. For nearly two hours, we bantered, questioned, analyzed, hypothesized, argued, and defended all aspects of Cutting for Stone.

{Third Side Bar: I’m not going to take the time to go into details about our discussion. My original review is here, and it still stands. The only think I’ll add is that we spent the majority of our time talking about thematic mirrors – in people, relationships, situations, systems. It seemed all of our discussions led back to the theme of mirroring.}

And yes, we drank – each Sista brought her drink of choice to her desktop, her laptop, her phone or her tablet. And, we laughed – a lot. Just like normal. Just as if we were sitting around each other’s kitchens. Just like every other month. Just like we will next month – be it virtual or not. 

I love my Sistas.