Vax and Relax
Title of this blog is a little sarcastic, but how often can you incorporate two “x”s into a title? As the vaccine rollout continues, things seems to be improving in the Covidverse, at least in the United States. I am 1/2 vaccinated, with my second dose coming next week. And then…? And then… And then what? How does a broken society start to mend? How does one forge forward with a trail of tears left behind? It’s been said that the details of the 1918 Flu Pandemic remained largely unknown because those who lived through it faced so much trauma they did not speak of it to future generations. (Gina Kolata’s book FLU is an excellent, if not harrowing, read on the subject) No doubt our pandemic caused equal amounts of trauma – deaths, fear, isolation, and the list goes on. So, how do we regroup as a society and march forward? Or can we sit in stillness a little while longer and let all the feelings wash over us? Let our brains try to process this extraordinary event? I don’t know that I’ll ever be able to relax again in ways I was able to pre-pandemic. But I will get vaccinated fully, and I do believe in science. In the end, as James Joyce says in his short story, “The Dead” – we are skating the thin ice betwixt life and death simply by living – and that truly is what this time in history has brought to the surface.