March came in like a lion and went out like a tornado this year. The big news is the virus sweeping the world. We all were hearing about it back in February and how it was growing quickly in China and Northern Italy, as well as on a cruise ship. Even then, it wasn't taken seriously by anyone, as people I know still traveled to Southern Italy the first part of March and were still planning trips to Japan or other places near the outbreak.
Gucci, Prada, and other glamorous fashion clothing brands come from Northern Italy. They have outsourced much of their production to Wuhan, China. As the people in China have become rich off the Italian fashionista companies, they have started buying some of those companies and moving to Italy. The world truly is flat.
Bringing it home, some of the things we have had cancelled include: public school, university classes (all gone online), Sunday church services, school and comp soccer games (and practices), volleyball tournaments (and practices), piano lessons, scout meetings, weeknight church youth groups, going out to eat at restaurants, spring break trips, NCAA basketball tournament, dentist appointments, kids playing with friends, horse riding lessons, orchestra practice, and probably some other things I'm not remembering right now.
Some of the things that go on include: homework sent out virtually from teachers, piano lessons via FaceTime, hikes and walks around the neighborhood with the dog, getting takeout from restaurants, our first virtual scout meeting will be this week through Discord, one of the kids had a church youth group meeting through Zoom, I work remotely from home already, home church, orthodontist, kids playing video games, texting and social media to connect with family, grocery shopping, and snow well into Spring.
What does the future hold? In some places, it is more isolation. In others it is spreading pandemic. It is anxiety about the summer. It is fear about next year?
It is a change and a new normal. Some people claim there won't be a new normal - we'll be back to the old normal by the end of the year. I hope we have all learned something from this. Families, businesses, and other organizations will hopefully be a little more prepared, will have trimmed a little bit of the unnecessary, more people will be working from home, fewer people will live in big cities, and what else? Probably some things we still can't foresee. Hopefully we take advantage of the changes and make them be positive ones.
