Last night we were cleaning up after dinner when Zoey casually said to us, "You know how Josh and I are living through the Corona Virus?" (Okay, she really said 'me and Josh' but I can't sit here and knowingly write a grammatically incorrect sentence). She continued, "Well, what virus did you guys have to live through when you were growing up? What was it called?"
My heart broke. I explained to her that not only have we never lived through anything like this before, but neither did our parents, or even our grandparents.
"Nothing like this has happened in over 100 years," I said, "and things were really different back then- no one has ever experienced anything like this before." She paused for a moment and said, "So you never had to wear masks all the time and stop going to your friends' houses?"
"Nope, we never had to do that before. And we never did remote school like you're doing, either." I then told them how when they're old and gray, their grandchildren will all sit around while they tell stories about the global pandemic that they lived through, and they'll explain to them all about the entire year and a half (my best guess) when hundreds of thousands of people died, stay at home orders and quarantining occurred, and we had more face masks in our house than packs of stickers. And then to lighten the mood I told them that their grandkids will look up and say, "Sure, Grandpa Josh, sure. Maybe it's time for you to go to sleep now, you're talking crazy again." They laughed and moved on to asking for dessert.
And we were left thinking how crazy it is to be living through something with children and no frame of reference. I can't call my parents and ask what the global pandemic they lived through as kids was like, just like we couldn't give Zoey an answer to that question. Because none of us have any idea. And while, for the first time I do see that there is a tiny of glimmer of light at the end of this immensely long tunnel, we're also just starting the winter season, with it's short and freezing days. The playgrounds and outdoor picnics we relied on all throughout the summer and fall are no longer an option. And then there's the question of what happens next? Since March it seems like we've had endless amounts of questions and hardly any answers. Will we, or our kids, have any lasting effects of such a traumatic year+? Will our kids be able to go to school full time next year? When will we be able to travel again? And I can't even imagine walking into a store without a mask on or hand sanitizer available at the ready. We might as well just all walk around naked for how uncomfortable it will be at first.
As I started to spiral, Irv reminded me to remember that all we can control is what is happening in our home. And in our home we have two crazy, curious, happy kids, a gym where we can work out our stress, a home office for him to work, and a sweet old dog who likes to sleep late every morning and be around her family every day. So, at least there's someone in our home who has loved every minute of 2020.
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