Today is the day. . . beaches are now no longer enforcing social distancing. There is no mandatory six foot stand-off. There are no barriers preventing access to the crystal clear water and white sand that beckons many a tourist to the likes of Florida. (Well. . . that and numerous days of sunshine.) It remains to be seen what the coming months will bring.
Covid 19 has made an indelible mark on our everyday lives, our experiences, and crazy enough our environment.
Spring Break is usually that time of year that both teachers and students take that welcomed exhale, bracing themselves for a planner full of endless events culminating what is to be the end of school year. Some travel. Some do the infamous “stay-cation”. While others- choose to stay home and relax knowing that when they return to school there will be numerous performances, long-range assignment deadlines, exams, awards ceremonies, graduations, and the tear-filled goodbyes. These will likely be memorable on every level.
This Spring Break was different. The entire week off, there was no travel. There were no exhales. There was, however, the stay at home.
As we watched the endless updates of Covid 19, aka. Coronavirus, working its havoc through state after state while Mayors waited for Governors, who waited for a President to make the next decision regarding Stay at Home Orders. Each City/State, thus creating their own plan of action. . .confusing at best. The news became a daily depression fest. The number of people in New York losing their lives in solitude- not even one family member was permitted to sit with them as they took their last labored final breath. The refrigerator trucks awaiting the bodies as morgues were at capacity. Funerals and memorial services were not to be had- too dangerous. Mass hidden gravesites seen only by drones flying intrusively overhead.
Each morning another update. Each morning another set of numbers. Each morning another reminder that each number represented a family that lost a loved one- without the ability to say goodbye, to mourn, to gain a much needed sense of closure.
Somehow, this pandemic has caused a rift along Political Lines, News Outlets, and Bodies of Government. But at the end of day- its just humanity. Its more than numbers, its more than political affiliation, its more than the daily news we see and hear-
At the end of the day- its your fellow man, its your community, its human kind- with an emphasis on KIND.
Many throughout this time have lost jobs, have mentally struggled with this “new normal”, and still others have been stripped of their right to grieve. My lesson when grieving my father’s death was that judgements need to be checked at the door. Everyone deals with stress, death, and now pandemics in their own way and in their own time. But through it all- kindness is what matters most.
Be damned the allegiances to whatever political party, whatever news source, and whatever feelings regarding the endless conspiracy theories- people need to people. . .more so now than ever.
elizabethavron 