What Year Are We?

 

I am well aware that today is January 4, 2022.  (Although every time I type the year I end up typing 2002...I'm not sure why and I'm AM sure that it means something, but I don't know what.)  As much as I want to type/write something along the lines of Happy New Year, it just feels "blah" to me.  It doesn't feel new or fresh.

Let's face it the year hasn't felt new or fresh since 2020.  I can recall New Year's Eve 2019 very clearly.  My son, dressed in his finest, went to a party at a friend's house.  It was a big deal; he was a freshman and most of the attendees were upperclassmen.  He was active and engaged with some great people.  As we moved into a new year, things seemed good.  I remember marking the new day with a walk around town in a new sweater that my son had bought me.  It was cold, but it was good to greet the New Year with a walk.  Later in the day (once my son finally rose from bed), the two of us went out for another walk, going to another town and exploring a path we had never walked before.  We ran into a teacher he'd had the year before (when he was still in middle school) as we headed home.  These memories, over two years old, are very distinct.

While I still have memories AFTER that, they are not as distinct and clear.  It's NOT that I'm forgetting things; it's just that since 2020, everything becomes muddy and cloudy.  Days blend into days.  It's like there is no clear delineation between days; weeks; months and seasons.  Nothing seems to be crisp and clear anymore.  Life is fuzzy.  (And not in a good fuzzy way like a plush stuffed animal.)

I can remember very clearly the last "normal" school day my son had (March 13, 2020).  I cannot remember when they transitioned from all remote to hybrid.  What month was it when he physically went back into a school building?  (It was in 2021, right?)  When did they start going full day again?  Everything just blends into one blob of unending unknowingness.  (And yes, if I really want to know what day was what I can go back and review my calendar and/or posts, but that's not my point.)

In a way it seems like 2020 never really ended.  2021 and even 2022 is just an extension of what was and continues on.  There was a time when I did remove my mask in social situations, right?  (Ok, I have proof of that: https://bfthsboringblog.blogspot.com/2021/06/unmasked.html)  However, we quickly had to return to wearing them.  We haven't returned to a full mandate of wearing them.  (I wish we would...every time I see an unmasked person now in a store, I cringe.)  As Omicron rapidly spreads and breaks through, I feel we ought to, but I am just a layperson.  (I'm the first one to admit that I was stupid enough to NOT wear one during a concert which resulted not in Covid, but a cold, all of which was BEFORE Omicron became big news.  Furthermore, in hindsight, we should have never have let our son attend a big party before the holidays, but...at least we were vaccinated and things were not as bad as they could have been.)

For  me, while we are in 2022...I have come to accept it, year 2 of 2020.  I am hopeful that there will be a point in this year (whatever you want to call it), life will change; we will change and once again I (we?) will have a sharper focus.  That life will be clearer again and that time will pass it as once did.  Where we will mark the days, weeks and months with meaning and not with numbers of infections.  The time WILL come.  And that is when I will truly celebrate.