Hindsight - March 23, 2023 | What’s happening in San Diego <

Hindsight

March 23, 2023

Debra Ross

 

Three years ago this week, we were confused and apprehensive. The pandemic had ignited, and we were inside, scrambling to adjust and stay strong for our kids. We feared both the immediate future and what lay around the bend. But we knew that our kids' physical and mental health depended on us not losing ours, and we did what we could.

My KOAA weekly column changed, as it had to. My posts over the years have typically reflected the rhythms of the seasons as a backdrop to an out-and-about celebration of life, childhood, parenthood, creativity, and community. But I couldn't do that in 2020: Communities were constricted, lives were in danger, and we could barely see to the weekend, much less to our kids' futures.

So I wrote about patience and fortitude through creativity (March 26, April 9, July 9, July 16, July 23, Aug 6, Oct 29, Nov 19; Nov 25); about leadership (May 7, Oct 1, Nov 5); about our frustration at not knowing when and how the pandemic would end (April 30, May 28, July 2, Dec 31); about being inspired by bright spots (Aug 13, Oct 8, Dec 17); and about how this was all part of our story, individually and collectively (Jun 11, Sept 10, Sept 24).

Far and away my most commented-on column of the pandemic was You-Shaped Gaps, taking Fred Roger's mother's oft-quoted recommendation to "look for the helpers" one step further. But my favorite column, Point BE, quoted my friend John Enright, who published this poem in December 2020:

"To be or not to be, that is the question."
Go ahead and be, is my suggestion.
You've lots of time to not-be when you're dead,
So while you're living, be, be, BE, instead.

Some people don't like to be transported back to that time, preferring a "that's over, let's forget it and look toward the future" approach. To me, though, it's all part of the story, and preserving that story is important. Keeping it alive and within sight reminds me each day that it's no longer spring of 2020, and that the point of living here and now is TO BE, as vibrantly as we can, while we have the chance. It keeps me grateful.

Deb