Lest we forget

 Good morning all,

I am having a decent time with this pandemic - having suffered from depression before, I think I have some coping strategies that other folks might not have.  However, I think it's important to realize the impact that it has on everyone.  It is, for sure, a trauma on everyone.  Some people handle it better than others, but we are in a pandemic.  No matter what we are considering, maybe we can just as humans be kinder to one another, more gentle and more understanding.  

I know as a teacher I sometimes want to focus on mastery or understanding and not be as flexible with grades as my students currently need me to be.  I think I should keep in mind the stress - the overarching fact that we are all suffering a pandemic.  We are ALL feeling it in different ways, reacting in different ways, as people all react differently to stress and trauma.  

So, here are ways it has affected me.  I know I am feeling isolated - my normally gregarious personality is a bit stifled, I'm not able to be with people or hug them as I normally would.  I can't even hug my mom, for goodness' sake.  So the ways in which I normally deal with stress and sadness and hard times have had to adapt.  I tie flies.  I fish.  I hang out with people who have similar exposure to mine, sometimes, with masks, at social distance.  It curbs the loneliness but it doesn't make it go away.  I sit in front of my sun lamp.  I walk with my dog.  I live, as fully as I'm able to inside of these pandemic constraints.  

Anyhow - I am trying to be easy with myself, be easy with people in my life - when they (or I) don't live up to my expectations during this time.  I am hopeful and I'm looking towards a time when this will all be over - but I think it will take a long time for us to get over it emotionally.  Even the vaccine, which gives me hope, isn't the end.  It will take full herd immunity and we will suffer more losses before the end of this.  It is a shared trauma, something that will live etched in our memories for years or decades.  So I urge you all, if you are able, to be kind and easy with all those you interact with.  Spread love and joy and happiness, or at least don't be mean.  

Here's hopin'.

Have a great day,

~Mark