Is It Safe?

 

Jeff––Saturday

 

No, this isn’t a Marathon Man retrospective.  Nor will Sir Laurence Olivier be drilling painfully into your incisors as he did so memorably (in a nightmare inducing scene) while repeating the film’s signature line to a bound, innocent, and clueless Dustin Hoffman.

 

For many, though, that scene embodies what they’ve endured for the past sixteen months.

 

How many of us have felt we’re stuck in a bizarre remake of Groundhog Day, where everyday Bill Murray awakes to face the same loop of events as he did the day before. 

 

It’s enough to drive you mad.

 

How many of us have found our concentration challenged, our focus foggy, our daily routines rote, our dress disheveled, our scheduling short term at best, and even then, tentative.

 

All of us have friends and family who suffered or perished.  It is a tragedy those who survive will remember for the rest of their days.

 

But I have good news. There is life out there again, and for those of us who’ve struggled to follow the rules, a sense of renewal that our faith in science has been rewarded. 

 

Yesterday, for the first time in sixteen months, Barbara and I abandoned our isolation and met for brunch with friends at an indoor---but socially distanced—Greek diner (where else).  

 

 

 

 I cannot tell you how liberating it felt to do something as simple as ordering a meal from a (masked) waitress, to sit with friends–all of us unmasked—to talk about things other than Covid crises, and to make plans!

 

 

My friends even picked up the check. Thanks again, Dave Magayna and Sue.  I sort of felt like fellow Pittsburgher, Gene Kelly, dancing his heart away in Singing in the Rain.

 

To achieve this state of amazing grace, all we had to endure was the painless prick of a vaccination. Free yourself.  Get your shot. 

 

May God bless you and keep you safe.

 

––Jeff