By Ron Baker
As September wound down I realized visiting was going to be a norm. Coming out of COVID we have talked about the next normal. Somehow the next normal has a lot of characteristics of the previous normal.
Maybe the need for visiting has become accelerated? When you are given the hand of little or no contact for two years, making up for lost time becomes a “thing”.
I believe our Saskatchewan government had seen the writing on the wall. Labels became the first to fall! We were now in an endemic and not a pandemic. Although health officials might appreciate the increased restrictions that could be imposed, our mental health could not stand up under the pressure. Turn to economic free flow and we looked askance at restricting customers. Freedom became a byword.
I would love to explore/research the acceleration of mental illness during the pandemic. I’m not sure we can fully understand how restrictions on F2F meetings caused mental chaos. But, as I visit with relatives and friend once again, I can personally attest to the lightening of gloom.
Our summer, as we moved slowly into an acceptance of freedom, had been gradual in accepting travel and visiting. Not so this fall.
The end of August was a family reunion. In beautiful B.C. While we are all different, at least we were all in one place. We made memories of sand castles and shared food. And I enjoyed a quick dip in a shallow lake where the temperature was tolerable!
September we saw the crazy aunts and cousins visit for an evening of hilarity and good food. Another night we spent with Ontario visitors, whom we found out were relatives via rehearsing genealogical charts and chatting informally. The fun of these encounters is the opportunity to explore stories of long lost and sometimes rather obnoxious relatives. Any time I feel like things are not quite normal in my life I just have to remember their adventures. Then everything I’m doing seems “normal”.
We are off to two October conferences, one in Banff, the other just outside Toronto. I don’t foresee a problem with travel either way. Masks, a symbol of the pandemic, are now seldom required. At least in our section of the large country of Canada.
Funerals have, are and will be another friend and relative gathering spot. I do not wish for death but the statistics proclaim death will happen. In that case the gathering is about us as the living. We learn more of each other and encourage each other to greater diligence in keeping in touch.
In the aftermath of the pandemic, I trust inquests into how to best meet this type of tragedy in coming years will include the great need to balance personal contact with isolation.
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