Real pain is being felt here during the business shutdowns designed to slow the spread of COVID-19.

Real pain for businesses, in their cash flow and bank balances; for workers, who have been laid off, or had their hours cut; for retirees (and soon-to-be retirees), watching rates on their CDs and balances on their 401(k) plans go down; for everyone with retirement accounts, watching the stock market in free fall.

It is pain we have all been asked to share in hopes of sparing the area an even greater pain: massive infection of the coronavirus with the high percentage of deaths expected in a cluster.

The government is structuring relief for citizens and businesses that will certainly help. There is no way to forecast, however, how much permanent damage will be done to the business network, or when recovery can be expected.

In the meantime, we can be grateful for living in a small community, where most people will do what they can to lend a hand to a suffering neighbor or a fa...