Day #17. First day of April, 2020. Finally, the sun appeared from behind the gray and foreboding clouds. It’s still chilly enough to need a jacket, though. Typical for April 1.
I’ve already lost track of how many weeks we’ve been safe at home. For me, it’s been about a month; for the kids, we are on week three. We have at least another month, for certain. The peak of the outbreak is estimated to be next week for New Jersey which means we will be indoors well into May. Perhaps even June.
Again, we are SAFE at home. We are not on the front lines of this crisis, made worse by the ineptitude of our government’s response; we are like the citizens buying war bonds and rationing sugar for the war effort – staying home, flattening the curve.
Today, my teenage son asked when he will be able to go back to school. “Not until June, probably, why?” was my reply. Even the kid who has been preparing for this his whole life is missing human interaction with people other than his family. My work friends, who mostly identify as introverts and generally do not like other people, are pining for the office and the interaction with other people. Aren’t humans funny? We never seem to know how good things are until we don’t have them. We always seem to want the opposite of our current condition.
While we settle into this new way of life, while we try our best to avert our attention from the constant toll of the virus, while we pray for friends and strangers who are fighting for their lives, while we send messages of thanks and hope to healthcare workers and everyone out in the public, let’s be thankful for where we are, what we have, and who we’re connected to.