Here we are, a good five months into the virus. And summer is winding down – earlier twilights, cooler nights, trees catching fire as their leaves succumb to the season. I was beginning to feel that summer might never end. So many options are frozen somewhere in the past. Maybe fall had been misplaced this year, along with a multitude of other things. On some mornings, timelessness and uncertainty seem to rule the day. Am I floating?
But wait. Here it comes! A drive across the Kankamagus Highway in our White Mountains brought that point home. Color blazed at every turn, all the way from dazzling yellow to deep vermillion, and just about every shade in between. No doubt about it; autumn is here. The world still turns.
We may have lost much in the way of structured events. Our casual approach to dining out, shopping, and gathering in groups of any size has been replaced with masks and 6 foot distancing. Someone is apt to surprise us with a thermometer at the oddest moments. We are relentlessly reminded of the uncertainty of these times. So why look on the bright side? Is there one?
Well, perhaps there is this. COVID 19 has stripped away so many of our options. We are so used to buffering our awareness of our vulnerability with blankets of comfort, and some of those blankets have been ripped away from us. Here we are, forced to consider more deeply our common humanity. We are all so fragile. We need each other. I for one have never spent this much time getting to know my neighbors. Isn’t that ironic?
