And then came the news.
Looking back at the past year seems like going through the memories of a whole lifespan. This was only one year but what a year it was. And we are still not out of the woods yet. Sometimes we say that someone grew up fast. Usually this relates to younger people who experienced certain traumatic, live changing events. When this happens, so it seems, the frontal cortex of a child can develop to an adult size.
We often refer to it as losing a childhood but we adults can also be affected in similar ways.
Life does it to us all the time in one form or another.
Before COVID, we as a society lived relatively comfortable lives. Yes, we all had our loads to carry but for the most part we had learned to balance the forces of existence and keep a steady momentum.
I’m sure that we all have clear memories of the moment when we realised that this time things got more serious than we expected. How many of us had the thought of a rhetorical pinch just to make sure that this wasn’t a bad dream. I know, I definitely hat that very thought.
I remember a meeting with fellow teachers sitting shoulder to shoulder with some of us wearing latex gloves, none of us had masks partly because they were suddenly all sold out and partly because of residual behavioural habits of just not wearing them then.
Do you remember the time of just walking around, gathering at concerts, socializing freely? Do you remember the time when you could just walk into a bank without covering your face with a mask? I remember having a pocket size sanitizing bottle with me at all times. Someone offered me a hundred dollars for it and I said no.
The management spoke, questions were asked and answered but all that seemed like random sound waves cutting the air. There was that unspoken thought in everyone’s mind. The thought or rather a feeling of wanting to hear some good news, that the pandemic was under control and that all we had to do was to go from point A to point B and then we would all meet at the point C, and all that would happen very soon.
And now we all know the rest of the story
collectively and individually.
What to do when it rains lemons?
Of course, there is only one answer. You bake bread!
I didn’t know the first thing about baking
but after a few tries I made this sour dough loaf, in fact, many of them.
How did yours turn out?
I also learned how to do something else.
TBC_