What's New?

 The Grammys are being postponed. Because no one really cares about music anymore. Instead, we are consumed with the passion to stay alive. 

COVID-19, the Energizer Bunny of pandemics keeps going and going and going...

At my school, we have considered ourselves "fortunate" because we have only five staff members out. This has yet to impact our classrooms, but we are all doing extra bits and pieces to keep our ship afloat. We have taken some comfort in the news that other schools in our district are struggling much harder against the current tide. On the Monday that we returned from Winter Break, nearly half of our kindergarteners were absent. This trend was mirrored to some degree in our upper grades, as the take home tests that were passed out before they all went on vacation were not the math or reading type. They were the swab up the nose kind, and a lot of kids did not pass. 

This has been my experience over the past month as the new surge threatens us all. Shot, boosted, masked and cautious, there are still cases falling all around. My family and I have had a few near misses, but we can hear the approaching footsteps and we are nervous. We recall the feeling we had a year and a half ago when we wondered if simply surrendering to the virus and getting it over with might be the best scenario. 

But every time someone does that, the terrorists win.

Or the plague. 

Or whatever. 

President Joe says he understands that we have all grown weary of this new way of living. We all yearn for a maskless existence. Will three shots be enough? Will we all eventually catch it? Is there a variant out there with my name on it?

And while I ponder these questions, and consider my place in the big scheme of things, I am thankful that I am not part of the health care system. The stories circulating out there from doctors, nurses and caregivers paint a pretty bleak picture. 

So maybe we should go ahead and try to get the Grammys on as soon as safely possible. We could use a little singing and dancing to take the edge off. We can stop worrying about COVID-19 for a while and turn our attention to the nominations of Marilyn Manson and Louis C.K. While horrifying and unsettling, this is the kind of torment with which I feel more comfortable wrestling with. From a distance. Vaccinated. With two masks on.