Perspective

A view or attitude... requiring distance

It’s not always easy to understand what’s happening while you’re in the middle of it. I spent 22 months mostly living in London (Feb 2016 - Nov 2017). I’ve been home 4 years, and I’m just beginning to integrate everything I learned from that experience.

Now we’re in month 22 of the pandemic (counting from March 2020 when the world came to a screeching halt). Does anyone fully understand what’s been happening to us?

I’m sure that I do not. Grocery shopping is not the ordeal it was in April/May 2020 - thank goodness! On the other hand, Christmas shopping is nowhere near the pleasure it used to be. Last year, shopping had to be online, and shipping was fairly reliable, and expectations were lower. We were just excited to see each other - cautiously, with open windows our outdoors, after two weeks of careful quarantine.

This year, we are mobile. We are traveling. We feel safer because of vaccinations and boosters. We go to malls or small shops or craft fairs. Things feel *almost* normal.

And yet… they are not. It is easy to forget, even as we put on masks and try not to freeze while eating outside on a sunny, ‘blustery’ day (actual quote from the weather report about 4 hours before I met friends for a patio brunch today!). Cases are rising; schools are closing. Packages are late, and store shelves are kind of bare. I am behind on my shopping. I am not even sure what I should buy. I am certain, though, that my family and friends will love whatever I give them - as much as I love being with them this week, baking cookies and decorating the tree!

How long will it be before we gain perspective and begin to understand the lessons of this oh so challenging time? We are living through a transition. Change is inevitable and important. We study this type of transition in history: the Renaissance, the Industrial Revolution, the Space Age. From the safety of the future, we can see the good that came from these changes. To the people living through them, there was also upheaval and uncertainty, pain and suffering, and a desire to keep things as they always were. As a whole, the human race emerged stronger, but some people did not see it - and some did not make it.

What will our descendants know that we cannot see? I believe the change coming our way - or already starting in many ways - will be as big, as important, and as good as those other changes in history. I even think (hope?) it will not take that long for us to reach the other side. Change and growth continue to accelerate. I look forward to gaining the perspective to see and appreciate not just believe.

For now, I look around and count my blessings. Merry Christmas!