On Wednesday, our daughter-in-law Katrina used her neighborhood listserve to trade a carton of cream for a neighbor’s can of beans. Last month, that would have sounded ridiculous. But that was before the coronavirus changed our lives.

On Thursday, I decided to make some lentil soup. With everything cancelled I had all day. I had a bag of lentils. I had carrots and onions. But I was missing crushed tomatoes, a key ingredient.

I debated, but I decided that if I kept my distance from others and never took my gloves off, I could chance a trip to the supermarket. It was surreal—people looking at each other suspiciously, trying to keep their distance from one another. The prepared foods and salad bar were empty for good reason. But people had been working very hard to keep our supermarket shelves relatively full.

And the lentil soup was delicious,