As adults we coped the best we could with the isolation, remote work, and lack of social contact enforced by public health mitigation since lockdown began in March 2020.
More recently we've started to venture out again, but we are finding a subtly changed world. Nothing is quite as it was, even as it may be hard to put a name on it.
Seeing that world through the eyes of my seven-year-old granddaughter helps me a bit. Knowing that her first day of in-person school was approaching, she started recently to practice one skill in particular and what that was surprised me.
It wasn't about reading or math or how to pay attention in class. It was learning to figure out what a "weekend" is.
On a Tuesday when she was told school would reopen soon, she asked, "Is today a weekend?'
A few days later, a Thursday, she asked, "Is *this* a weekend?"
Apparently as the pandemic dragged on, she lost the ability to tell what makes any one day different from any other. (That of course is a question that has stumped philosophers as well down through the ages.)
But she had definitely figured out the answer she was seeking by the night before school started. She was sitting cross-legged in the upper bunk, arranging her school supplies in her brand new backpack when I entered the room.
"Are you excited about your first day of school?"
"No," she replied bluntly. "We'll have to get up really, really early and get ready really, really fast and when we get there I'll probably be really, really scared."
"Oh my," I answered. "Well it's a big change for all of us. And I'm going to really, really miss you being here."
She shrugged and looked at me with a reassuring expression. "Don't worry, Grandpa. We'll always have the weekends."
Finally, the first day of school arrived. Any fear that she and her sister would have trouble getting up in time after 18 months of sleeping in were misplaced. They were wide awake, dressed and ready to go by 5:30.
School starts at 8. It's maybe five minutes away.
***
My friend and author Susanna Camp is out with a new article on LinkedIn discussing how the pandemic has affected all ages mentally and socially in multiple ways.
First, she notes a disturbing academic study indicating that infants born during the pandemic are showing significantly lower IQs than in the past. This may be due to the lack of social interaction.
But there's more.
"(I)t’s not just children who’ve suffered from limited experiences during the pandemic. Opportunities for serendipitous encounters through social and professional interactions have dried up. Those starting their careers these past couple of years are clueless when it comes to sharing an office with peers, meeting up with colleagues for coffee or lunch, engaging in diverse evening events, striking up a relaxed, spontaneous conversation or any of the staples of pre-pandemic human interaction that made our lives richer."
"(T)here’s no substitute for the real world. Brain development and neuroplasticity in infants as well as adults depends on adding new experiences and encountering new things – especially off-screen."
She suggests what we have to do to overcome these deficits in our lives and I encourage you to read her piece. <https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/brain-gain-susanna-camp/?trackingId=SPQt7l82RSqkCDTHEhfr%2BQ%3D%3D>
She knows what she's talking about.
***
For me, the challenge of rejoining society is somewhat different than my granddaughter or a young entrepreneur. I'm opening the third act of my life and career and the world looks quite different to me than it did back in March 2020.
Then, my dominant mood was despair; now it is hope. Meeting with friends old and new is definitely helping my neural pathways loosen up.
On Sunday, my buddy Alex took me on a drive in his new truck to catch up on stuff and talk about the future. We've collaborated on some big investigations in the past but he's also just a good friend I can talk about anything with, you know, guy stuff.
Our ultimate destination: A charming little corner of the county with hills, Victorian houses, cafes, a small park, and an old brick tunnel leading to the bay.
This is the kind of place where in my fantasy I would start a new life if I could. It's the perfect combination of old and new, town and the country, close enough to the city but remote as well.
The bay is right on the other side of that tunnel. Driving through it I thought I glimpsed the future, and I liked what I saw.
***
THE HEADLINES:
* Brain Gain. The grades are in – the pandemic is dumbing us down. (S.Camp/LinkedIn)
* School Is Starting. Can Children Stay Safe From Covid-19? (California Today)
* Vaccine mandates gain steam even as opponents mount protests (WP)
* How likely is the variant ‘doomsday scenario’? (SF Chronicle)
* San Quentin Suffers New COVID-19 Outbreak (SF Public Press)
* Many Bible Belt preachers silent on shots as COVID-19 surges (AP)
* Exposure to smoke during last summer’s wildfire season could be associated with thousands of additional coronavirus infections as well as hundreds of deaths in Washington, Oregon and California, a new study has found. (California Today)
* The Tragedy of Afghanistan -- The war had to end. But it didn’t have to end in such chaos. (Editorial Board/NYT)
* The Taliban swept into Afghanistan’s capital Sunday after the government collapsed and its embattled president joined an exodus of fellow citizens and foreigners, signaling the end of a costly two-decade U.S. campaign to remake the country. Fearful that the Taliban could reimpose the kind of brutal rule that all but eliminated women’s rights, Afghans rushed to leave the country, lining up at cash machines to withdraw their life savings. [AP]
* A Week Into Taliban Rule, One City’s Glimpse of What the Future May Hold -- In Kunduz, the new insurgent leaders said they had no quarrel with the people. But residents say they soon began instilling fear. (NYT)
* Listen to the voices of Afghan women (WP)
* Activist Malala Yousafzai voiced grave concerns for women, minorities and human rights activists after the Taliban seized control of Afghanistan. Yousafzai, who was shot in the head by Taliban gunmen in Pakistan when she was 15, said she was watching in complete shock as Taliban forces advanced into Kabul. [HuffPost]
* Profits and poppy: Afghanistan's illegal drug trade a boon for Taliban (Reuters)
* Thousands Evacuate as Wildfires Ravage Utah and Northern California (NYT)
* The death toll from a 7.2-magnitude earthquake in Haiti climbed to 1,297. (AP)
* Biden Administration Prompts Largest Permanent Increase in Food Stamps -- The jump in benefits, the biggest in the program’s history, comes after a revision of the initiative’s nutrition standards that supporters say will reduce hunger and better reflect how Americans eat. (NYT)
* After turning out to vote in record numbers in 2020 despite the COVID-19 pandemic, Native Americans are now one of the biggest targets of Republican-backed voter suppression efforts in states where their votes mattered the most. The new wave of laws seeks to take advantage of the existing barriers Native voters face by making them even worse than before. [HuffPost]
* MLB umpires are squeezing the strike zone, and it’s hurting some teams more than others (WP)
* Toddler At That Cute Age Where Anything Can Be Projected On Them (The Onion)
***
"Love at First Sight"
Thought that I was going crazy
Just having one of those days yeah
Didn't know what to do
Then there was you
And everything went from wrong to right
And the stars came out and filled up the sky
The music you were playing really blew my mind
It was love at first sight
-30-
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