A year ago today, I wrote about the pandemic for the first time.
A year ago, I was angry that a much-anticipated family reunion for my dad’s seventieth birthday had been cancelled. He turns seventy-one on Thursday, and there has been not one hint of a do-over, and in my conversation with him yesterday, he sounded disappointed that he will likely not receive even one visit, even from the son who lives forty minutes away.
And this is what’s wrong. This is what was stolen from us.
A year ago, and now here a year later, we’re inches closer to resuming ordinary life. Inches, because while the vaccines roll out and states reopen, we have still yet to grasp the full impact of the shutdowns. Not even close.
Single parents have struggled with the realities of distance learning. Students have lacked structure in their education. And while everyone has hammered everyone else about “not taking this seriously enough,” adherence to basic protocols has varied greatly. You hear endless condemnation for large gatherings (unless it’s a protest), and yet family gatherings have continued, domestic interstate travel, with little concern for quarantine measures.
Those of us following the rules have lost the most, and we don’t even care.
In some ways, the pandemic has been exceptionally good for me. I’ve been able to refocus on my writing in ways I haven’t been able to for years. That’s great! But it comes with a terrible cost. It’s been a year and three months since I’ve spent time, in-person, with my niece. I haven’t even met my new nephew. And this is extremely unlikely to change soon. I currently have no idea when it might.
The family reunion was cancelled. We set up a series of family phone calls, but somehow I started to feel only alienated because of them, and as they continued, I enjoyed them less, and by Christmas the very idea of them ruined the entire day. I have never had worse relations with my entire family than in the past year.
Oh, and the pandemic itself! A year later and I still don’t personally know a single person who died directly because of it. Everything I’ve experienced has been a result of side-effects.
No comments:
Post a Comment