The Hunt

April 9, 2020

We're all on our own personal hunts right now: Some are hunting toilet paper, some are hunting Cadbury Eggs, some are hunting for connections with the outside world, some are hunting for inner peace.

When my kids were young, my favorite type of party was an Egg Hunt party, and that's mostly because I'm cheap and lazy I love packing loads of fun into a short amount of time at low cost with easy prep and practically zero stress. Due to social distancing, that sort of gathering is out for this year. But I have 300 plastic Easter eggs in the attic, and I'll be darned if they are going to go to waste. My kids are college-age, and they read this newsletter, so I'm not going to say exactly what I'll be doing with those eggs, only that it's a very Rossian type of puzzle. (There's no getting out of it, girls, no matter how late you sleep on Sunday.)

We all need some short-term gratification these days, because the medium-to-long-term visibility on our family, social, and work lives is still murky. A hunt is just the thing we need: It's easy to set up, it doesn't cost anything, it gives you something to look forward to, each little discovery provides a tiny thrill, and it gets us all off the couch. You'll feel great about the exclamations of pleasure all over your house or backyard.

Don't celebrate Easter? Don't have any eggs? Hide something else: Legos? Matchbox cars? Little green army men?  Make it something you can play with after the hunt; I'm guaranteeing it will raise everyone's spirits. If your grocery store is out of the good candy, I bet no one in your house would argue with an Easter Bunny who hides nickels, dimes, and quarters.

The heroes are on the hunt, too: The pulmonologists and internists are hunting for ways to help patients breathe better and recover faster; the mathematicians are hunting for equations that describe the curve; and they're working with the epidemiologists to try to predict the future; the virology researchers are hunting for a vaccine and a cure. Imagine the exclamations of pleasure we'll hear from all over the world when they succeed.