For the first time in months, I have hope that we might eventually move beyond the restrictions and ramifications of the plague year. As of today, all four members of my family have been fully vaccinated and the appropriate waiting time has elapsed for full efficacy of our antibodies. The CDC has said walking outside without masks is okay. Orders for goods are up significantly as are orders for services. Business inventories are way up meaning they being pent up demand will be loosed shortly.
Still, I have one friend who has been hospitalized for weeks and will be hospitalized for weeks more with Covid-19. Also, I have neighbors who have been recently diagnosed with Covid and at least one of them was hospitalized. Thirdly, in a local news forum there is one person who is railing on saying things were never really that bad, we didn’t need to shut down and implying that anyone who bought into to the lockdowns and masking are snowflakes. Obviously, the writer would have liked to have called us libtard pussies but knows his neighbors would not tolerate such nonsense.
Statistics have shown Americans in the last year have turned our lives inward. We bought furniture both indoor and outdoor. We bought appliances. (Guilty plea entered on my part, our stove and dryer both died and have now been replaced). We remodeled. (Another guilty plea, I repainted the living room and bought a leather couch to refresh the space.) We exercised. We watched streamed music performances. We read. E-book checkouts from online library services surged 122%.
We reconnected. For months Francie and I have been talking to longtime friends via a once monthly Zoom gathering. These are people who are far flung around the country. The experience has been a soul lightening blessing. I have learned of the distant travels and daily lives of folks that should have never dropped off my radar. I am sure I am not alone. When I look at the groups that have formed on that evil application Facebook, or that have been reinvigorated during this time, it is clear we have been reminded how important others are to our lives. When you are essentially locked away for a year you really do think about the people who have mattered in your life.
We got philosophical and turned our focus toward the meaning of life and toward our own fragile hold on mortality. Just scan back through your own e-mails and postings over this year and I bet you see threads of faith or existentialism or stoicism. When the world has shut down and when simply exchanging a good morning greeting with a neighbor unmasked and too close could lead to your death, you clearly are forced to think about life and its meaning.
The plague is slowly ebbing. We, according to the medical experts (and I trust them more than I trust politicians) need more people to get vaccinated to get to herd immunity. Still, we are moving in the right direction. We can sit in a room with people who are vaccinated without wearing masks. With appropriate procedures it is far safer to enter a retails venue than it was six months ago. Risk has not been eliminated but it grows smaller ever day.
So, will some long-term changes linger following all this we have been through? If I am an indicator, I think so. I will continue to utilize curbside pickup for so long as my grocery orders over $35 dollar are delivered without charge or markup to the trunk of my car. My online shopping for everything from TV antennas to box springs will continue unabated. And I don’t just use Amazon although it gets the lion’s share of my business. My hope is that the Zoom meetings with old friends stay a regular part of my monthly life. I also hope that I will be able to keep up my exercise regimen and my reading uptick.
The world has changed. Life has changed. Hopefully we humans have lost some of our hubris as regards our relationship with the natural order of things here on earth. We are not the biggest toughest things on this planet when a tiny virus can stop the world for months. Maybe we have thought just a bit about the obligations we owe to one another in keeping our communal health and safety at the front of our minds.
Oh, and on a personal note it looks the European Union will be letting fully vaccinated Americans in come midsummer. I have already begun making reservations for fall travel. The walls of my 2000 square foot cell are not going to be a constraint to me living my life much longer.
Hopeful. Forward looking. This is where things stand in the pandemic in my neighborhood. I hope the same came be said for how the world is where you live. We get through this working together.
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