Rose, Bud, Thorn is a nightly conversation game I learned as a summer camp counselor years ago. Surprisingly, it has become a big hit here in Commune Topanga quarantine. Every night Jeff and Schuyler’s daughters insist we play — maybe because they want to head off any talk of statistics and politics, but, I have come to suspect, because they crave the healing hidden in the game.

...

We have entered an era where the CDC is posting articles on how to make your own mask and videos with the U.S. Surgeon General in full dress...

Every night on the property you can hear two owls. One has a deep, slow hoot — a steam engine finally pulling into the station. The other is higher pitched, questioning. We’ve never seen them, but they have pet names anyway: Bert and Ernie.

That’s the preamble... 

Now the sun is setting and 9-year-old Micah runs into the kitchen shouting, “There’s a stuffed...