By Ed Piper
I don't want to be overly optimistic, and I don't want to downplay the devastating effects COVID has had on many (millions) of individuals and their family members. But it appears that the COVID situation is getting better, and my hope is that it will continue to improve and enable us to get out, to attend sports events and other activities where other people will be present, and to approach a new "normalcy"--after 23 months of turmoil since Friday the 13th back in March 2020--black Friday, the day the pandemic really started to hit locally and in the state, March 13, 2020.
More sports teams are playing more games. One thing I notice in my personal habits the past two weeks is that I am not trying to contact LJHS coaches before every single contest to see if there is a COVID cancellation. That happened two weeks ago and last week. I showed up for a girls varsity water polo game at Coggan Pool Thurs., Jan. 27, and seeing no activity in the far pool that resembled a game and no posting on the far scoreboard that the Vikings use, I was told games had been postponed "till Monday".
In the short span of that week, maybe two, one can see an easing of the concern over mask-wearing, contact, going to gatherings. These are all signs of individuals' correct and appropriate responses to an infection that can easily spread and wreak havoc on one's health, loved ones' health, the whole gamut.
A healthy concern is good.
I'm not saying it isn't right to use safeguards, observe protocols, and in this way care for oneself and one's loved ones.
Hey, you bring a deadly disease home, and it will do you harm. No telling what can happen. I have underlying issues: do I want to take a chance and get either the original strain, or the Omicron variant? No. I have no idea what effect it would have on my breathing.
The gifted piano player who accompanied our worship singers at church got COVID and nearly died. Thankfully, he has returned back home and is being nurtured, we hope, back to better health. It has been a difficult time for him and his wife.
Right now, though, looking out on a class at a local public high school I sub at, I'm seeing masks on but in the larger context of a relaxation of the nervousness, the snap "Pull up your mask" you got from different employees at different schools during the worst periods of the COVID pandemic.
We went to a gathering last night, I realize afterward, that wouldn't have happened during the previous 23 months of hell. A small group was invited for dinner, and we enjoyed fellowship and the random bits of conversation that people share when they are in the company of others and aren't fixated on the preciousness of each moment and whether they're going to get COVID.
Like I said at the outset, I'm optimistic. Things are looking up. I would miss the increased pay I receive from one school district for subbing during COVID. I look forward, again, if the trend continues, to a calmer conclusion of this 2021-2022 school year into mid-June. What a summer it could be.
Much more hopeful. The possibilities are endless.
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