WHO WOULDA THUNK IT?

“This is against our nature,” Dan Barry wrote in the NY Times regarding the Corona Virus and sequestration, “we are meant to be together. Blending voices in worship and clinking glasses in taverns. Line dancing at weddings and standing in line at wakes. High-fiving at ball-games, applauding shamelessly at school concerts, moving as one in packed subways lurching forward.”

Not so much, I have come to learn. Sharon and I are getting along just fine in isolation. She is at her desk… or sprawled out in the living room… composing the third draft of her memoir for 2021 release by Simon & Schuster. I am busy… doing not very much, which suits me just fine. It used to be a bit tricky, avoiding the neighbors, now it’s a breeze. There are, of course, things that I miss, but overall, I find reports of “cabin fever” and folks going “bat shit crazy” highly overstated.

My old college roommate and his spouse send out daily e-mails describing in detail the evening meals they spend all day preparing and the wine they select to go with the repast. In almost every way I can discern, they are having the time of their lives.

My lawyer here in Florida has always worked from the day she became an early  grad out of law school, supporting a husband and two kids, then being widowed and continuing her career in one of the nation’s top firms while raising those kids on her own. She has now left her law practice and is home alone. Turns out it is her longest running fantasy… to be in that house, on her own, to get it organized, and---for the first time in her life---experiment in her kitchen with the art of cooking. In twenty years, I have never known her to seem happier.

I acknowledge that these references are to folks who are all eligible to collect Social Security, but sometimes, with age comes wisdom. The world is an interesting place. Sometimes we… as individuals… can be the most interesting thing in it. Introspection, inner dialogue, reflection, time on the deck admiring the view, or appreciating the plants both in and out of doors.

I know that it is “old hat” to admonish folks to take a beat, to smell the flowers. But… honest… do it. Really. Bake some bread. Clean out a closet. If not now, when? Barney Rosenzweig