“What a lark! What a plunge!”

Ah, those first famous words from Virginia Woolf’s fabulous, timeless Mrs. Dalloway. Today, almost one-hundred years after the novel’s publication in 1925, and in the midst of a once every-one-hundred year pandemic, we can easily wonder at the marvelous manner with which Mrs. Dalloway would have greeted our circumstances–aware of the sad reality of death, yet enchanted by the human experience.

We can imagine her keen eye taking in and commenting on the COVID-masks obscuring the facial tics of passers-by, her frustration at her own face-covering blocking the fragrant scent of those gorgeous flowers that she would say she would buy herself. And, of President Trump, what delicious anecdotes would she serve up to entertain–and to energize us?

Would Mrs. Dalloway throw a Zoom party to divert and delight us, making us feel special–and superior–even if only for a brief interlude?

No doubt, a quarantined Clarissa Dalloway would find just the right note–and strike it. Twice!