A group of river rafters who put in to the Colorado River above America’s Grand Canyon on February 19, 2020, were out of contact with the rest of the world until they ended their journey on March 14. At their final landing, they were greeted by a worker from the rafting company, who filled them in on the global pandemic. 

One of the rafters later said, “. . . I loved that blissful ignorance. It allows you to enjoy the beauty of life. . . . We lived in the moment. We were some of the only people in the world who had no idea. I liked it better then” (Charlie Warzel, “They went off the grid. They came back to the coronavirus,” The New York Times, March 17, 2020).

The information they received at their final landing seemed to reduce their month-long sojourn with beauty and grace to “blissful ignorance” and suggested that their reemergence into the larger world promised only fear and uncertainty.