March, 1st 2021

It was another Monday in the coronaverse. Another Monday in a strange year of Mondays.

A year ago the world had a glimpse of a possible future. China was in a lockdown, had been for two months. That kind of thing could never happen in Canada? Could it?

Little did we know what would happen only two weeks later.

We were having fun, we were carefree people. No worries in the world. Our biggest problem was how much snow would we get in March for the end of the ski season. It had been an epic year so far.

I knew some people in Europe that were telling me of an outbreak of coronavirus…. a virus named after a beer.. Word was circulating that Italy was having a hard time and people were dying there in large numbers, their hospitals were being over-run with cases of this new beer sickness.

That was Italy, it couldn’t happen in North America… could it?

One year ago I announced the party I was going to have for my fiftieth birthday on April third. There was no way only a couple of short weeks later I would be forced to cancel my celebration. I never figured we would then be forced to cancel our adventure in Europe. I never considered that my party would get canceled, let alone the fact I couldn’t have a party on my fifty-first birthday.

One year ago was at the end of the before times. It was a time when we could hug friends and shake hands with strangers. It was a time when concerts were still planned for. When the world was a safe place and we didn’t worry about sharing an elevator with a stranger.

If someone had told me that in one year I would need to wear a mask to go to the store. I would have laughed and wondered what sci-fi movie he was watching. Now masks have become some form of a political statement.

Today I drove past a crowd standing in protest. Maskless and misinformed this group thinks they are making a difference. I get it, people are tired of all the restrictions, tired of being told to stay home, tired of being told to wear a mask. Tired…

I know I’m tired. I’m also tired of all the fear and frustrations. Our society seemed to be uniting to battle this viral foe. Then came the bots on the internet, feeding fear. Along with them came all the conspiracy theories.

Now we have three vaccines they say will help bring us out of these distanced times. We hope to be out of the shadow of the coronaverse soon. But we have entered a darker shadow we may never emerge from.

It is a shadow of distrust. The institutions that have been put in place to protect us are now deemed untrustworthy by so many people; it’s scary.

I have lost friends because of this distrust. Because I still trust in the people we hired and elected to look after our world. I was called a sheep, I was told to wake up.

Who knows, maybe they are right, maybe I am dreaming. I would rather live in my dream and believe we will come out of this stronger and free. I would rather embrace the gifts I have been given by this pause in our world.

I have been given the greatest gift of all. I have been given a chance to follow my dream. To live it and make it a reality. All I can hope is for everyone else to embrace their dreams.

If this is all a dream, I might as well dare to dream big.