January 3, 2021
New Year’s greetings on a dreary first Sunday of the year. Despite the hanging gloom, I took my first real walk of 2021 and enjoyed some face-to-face time with my kids before they return to (virtual) school, campus, and in-person teaching for the spring semester.
I have not been a “New Year’s” person for many years, and have long regarded as like the turning of any other calendar page. But I concede the upheaval of 2020 makes me hungry for a “new start,” even though nothing has largely changed about the end of the last cursed year, and some fresh hope.?
Though I’m not patient-facing, my healthcare employer has deemed me “essential” enough that I have received Round One of the COVID vaccine. I found it less problematic than a normal flu shot (which I see as routine and don’t bother me in the least) and experienced virtually non-existent side effects. I’m due for my next batch in another couple of weeks and should have achieved immunity by the end of the month.
Assuming I’m immune (to symptoms, or just the entirety of carrying or transmitting the disease? Like so many things from 2020, I’m confused), is it fair to say I feel a little bit like I’m invited to a party which few others can attend?? I’ve been so hungry to return to a normal routine, yet I don’t know how soon others can or should join me, or even if I should be dunking a tepid toe in the waters just yet.? So many precautionary acts became habit in oh, about May. For now, I plan to continue to take appropriate precautions, mask and distance, yet I may expand my range of acceptable risk a bit.
Since 2020 is the year that just won’t die, there is another fight this week over the presidential election and ultimately, at least symbolically, the direction of the country.? As I have documented countless times in this space, our fellow citizen’s lack of concern for one another (at least if his vote opposes yours) is striking and disheartening to me. Nearly everywhere I walk or drive, I see evidence of a few diehards not yet willing to let the past administration go, and the long-term electoral damage of these last few months will be with us for a long time.
Speaking of time, does anyone else feel they have lost all concept of it? I remember multiple instances last spring of thinking our “pandemic normal” would have subsided by July, then August, then October, then… While it does seem to a resolution at hand, how long will it take to play out. I’m anticipating our next milestone to be sometime in… ? I just don’t feel comfortable circling a date on the calendar anymore. I was wrong so often in 2020.
Despite the uncertainty we all deal with, I am grateful for some things in the past year, and have occasionally felt a little survivor’s guilt that I emerged relatively unscathed. I (still) have the health of my family and most friends. Those afflicted with COVID were largely mildly so, and friends I lost in the last year passed from more generally-recognized causes, namely Life and normal wear-and-tear. I have full-time employment, and was not furloughed or re-deployed to a high-risk area. I lost some weight during quarantine and stay-at-home orders, with a not-unlimited food and resource supply at home and frequent trips to the drive-through discouraged and even suspect. I learned the feeling of wind in my hair again, as I made good on my long-threatened desire to grow it out. I understand and empathize than many, many others were not as fortunate as I in their inconveniences. I really don’t do resolutions, but I pledge to continue to be mindful of this as we move into 2021.??