Longing for those covid years?

  

Remember the days when all we had to worry about, other than dying from some mysterious new virus, was running out of toilet paper? 

Remember when families got closer together for a few weeks before they started driving each other nuts? 

Remember when you could roll out of bed in the morning straight into your office? 

Those were the days. Other than the initial terrifying anxiety, the first year of the pandemic suited me just fine. 

Then came year two... That’s when I realized working from home had drawbacks. I missed the informal banter that went on between me and my coworkers. I missed going to public places without the fear of contracting something. 

And then I did contract something. A full two years after the virus first hit Canada, I got covid fairly bad – as in, I was bedridden with a migraine-like headache. Fortunately, with no long-lasting symptoms, this ended the worst of the pandemic for me. From that point on, life largely returned to normal.   

You'd think we would all be the better for surviving the pandemic, but I’m not sure this is the case. Typically, a natural disaster or emergency brings people together, but somehow the pandemic drove us apart. There was the division over masks, then the vaccines, and even debates about gathering in groups. It put pressure on families, as some members didn’t feel it was safe to meet yet. I’ll never forget the three-hour trip to visit my parents for an outdoor wiener roast in February – it was dystopian.

I’m sure there were pockets of post-pandemic improvements in our lives. You may be more grateful for the freedom to travel now. You may no longer take for granted the closest people in your life. 

But as a collective, I can’t say we’re in a better spot than we were in 2019. In North America, violent crime surged during the pandemic, as did drug overdoses. Then inflation and interest rates took off. The economy, while still doing all right, doesn’t feel as good as before that pesky virus came about. And as a society, we may be more divided than ever.

Groups felt more entitled to protest, whether they be on the left or right, rattling society in different ways. Don’t get me wrong, protests can lead to good outcomes, but they can also have bad ones. A few extreme views can ruin it for everyone, especially when there’s so much uncertainty. 

Do we wear masks or don’t we? Do we get the vaccine or not? Do we storm the US/Canadian capital or what?? These simple (and sometimes stupid) questions led to a whole new level of suspicion and propaganda, not to mention threats to democracy. 

We are inherently resistant to change. Change can be good when managed over time, but humans are challenged when it happens suddenly. We don’t have the resilience to deal with it, often exacerbated by a lack of community and distrust of people in power. 

Online communities and talking through Zoom were good to have, but they don’t replace the face-to-face human connection. It was damaging to my psyche to be locked up in my basement for months at a time (okay, I wasn’t locked up, but it was starting to feel that way). Strange and weird things could have and did happen...  

I won’t go into all that now, but let me just say, I’m glad the worst is over. Let’s hope we’ve learned a little about ourselves and how “human” we are when it comes to social deprivation. At times we are willing to believe anything to allow us to continue living with inherent freedoms – not necessarily a selfish thing, although it can be – and to live communally.  

For most of us, change is hard. Isolation makes it worse. 

There you go, lesson learned. No more pandemics, please.