Editor:

I want to respond to Bill Stiles letter (Mailbox, July 30), which criticized Mark Larson's July 23 article "A Walk Around the County." Yes, there are more people now than ever struggling to pay for food and rent. This issue deserves more media and community attention. However, there is no need to denigrate Mark Larson's article and dismiss the stress he mentions as irrelevant. Human beings need other people. It is a fundamental requirement, and nothing truly replaces face to face contact. The media and health officials have rarely acknowledged this during lockdown, but the stress we feel from diminished human contact and increased confinement is real. It affects our physical and mental health.

I appreciate Mark Larson's article, because it focuses on exploring the real world as an antidote to the stress. This makes a welcome contrast to the endless encouragement to move ever more of our lives onto that disembodied world known as the internet. Real life in the real world is always better.

Amy Gustin, Ettersburg