It’s safe to say at this point in the pandemic (a phrase I never really expected to write), I am both weary and wary.
I’m weary of … well, all of it. I’d really love to hug my friends and my parents. I would like to be buying school supplies at Target with all the hope inherent in a new year. I miss housewarming parties and baby showers and playdates and casually ducking into the drugstore for a pack of gum. I’m tired of texting with my Shipt shoppers about arugula and Lunchables, and I’m tired of trying to enforce social distancing with my 8-year-old whenever I take her out in public (which is infrequently). I’m tired of having to make sure I know where my mask is before I leave the house. I’m tired of literally all of it. ALL. OF. IT.
And I’m wary of EVERYONE WHO IS NOT DOING ANY OF THESE THINGS. I see your pictures of massive mask-free pool parties and you shoulder-to-shoulder with a bunch of people from your “informal” high school reunion. I see your backyard barbecues with your neighbors, ALL of them, everyone on the whole block, and your caption that it’s OK because you only took your masks off to eat and to take the picture. I see you on crowded beaches, drinking beer and not even trying to keep your distance. Please keep your distance from me and from my family. I’m scared of you because you could kill us all with a sneeze.
We have, as a state, reported 6,000 cases in three days. And people are not only not doing any of the things we’ve been told to do to curb the spread of COVID-19 but are so unconcerned about it that they’re proudly sharing their adventures to social media with no fear of being shamed!
Meanwhile … schools aren’t starting. I won’t set foot in Target. I only see my friends and family sporadically and from 6 feet away outside in New Orleans in July. Ruby is missing her best friend’s birthday sleepover, and Georgia didn’t get a real birthday party at all.
The sacrifices are worth it, but we ALL have to make them. And we’re just not, not as a whole, not as a city/state.
Back in March, I thought this would for sure be over by May. Now I have no sense that it will ever be over at all.
