200821 Escape Covid Stage 3 Change School Freedom

                                   A view of the Vermont mountains from Rain's farm

August 21

 Was it five days ago I last wrote? We have had a whirlwind few days, I hardly registered their passing because we were planning our (or my) escape. We found a place to stay and I depart on the seventh of September for a month in Québec. If the children are going back to school K will come with me, or even if they don't it will be nice if he does. Tamar is still uncertain about the children going to school. I don't know what I'd do if it were me.

I spoke in April and May about the slow pace of time that the pandemic produced, but that seems to have progressed to a sense of urgency in each day. Not only for me with a deadline, but for many because there is a window of freedom just now, while we exist safely in stage 3: three weeks have passed and there are no horror stories of massive outbreaks. Some of us are looking over our shoulders for the next wave, hoping to get our necessary errands done and get home before it hits. Others seem to be quite nonchalant about distancing and distainful of masks even when in a store, wearing them below their noses or not at all. They also walk right by without eye contact so that they won't see your hints about distance. (Or, since I was in a Home Depot, it was my gender that made me invisible. Have you ever been in line at a store and a man walked right by you to the cashier, as if you were a potato chip display? A potato chip display might actually have garnered more awareness!) 

Do these people understand that it's not over till the last case has recovered or the vaccine is delivered?Slowly (or not so slowly in the US)  people are getting tired of protecting the elderly and others at risk and want to get back to making money, back to normal. But the world will never go "back" to an earlier normal. Nor should we let it. We must face the future as one humanity, one community that shares the wealth with those who are enabling it, factory workers, caregivers, labourers, third world countries and respects and raises to their proper place in society those who work the "essential" tasks and are, as we have so plainly seen, our most valuable asset. The poor and marginalized, who make up this precious workforce will not be left in the dust until such time we need them again. Don't slide back into a status quo that has long outlived its relevance if indeed it ever had one. It is no longer acceptable to say that we have come a long way with either racism or sexism. It is time that we recognize that part-way is not enough - stop it all now. Continue to push awareness and responsibility in this generation now. Change the rules and laws and attitudes now at once, no excuses: too expensive, too hard. It only too hard if you are having to give up your golf membership; for the person who mops the floor at the club, it's not hard.

The other issue pushing at Time is the return to school - Toronto has been running about like a chicken without a head putting seemingly a vague effort into preparing for September, no unified pattern, and conflicts with teachers' and parents' interests. Now they have put specific plans in place regarding mandatory masks and limited class sizes and they have delayed the start of the year until September the 15th.* It gives parents a bit more breathing space. 

My getaway and K's is long overdue. He and I haven't spent more than a weekend away in a decade. We've mostly been working and minding grandchildren. K will take his on-line work with him, but for the first time (ever?) I will have no-one to please or care for, unless I count K, but compared to children and grandkids, he is a piece of cake. No-one else's dishes or laundry or meals but ours. There will be wild woods and waterways to explore, birds and plants to identify, in the shelter of the ancient hills ringing us round. We will be about 20 minutes from Rain and Tal at the farm so we can have social-distance visits from time to time. Fig, who adores Rain more than anyone else in the world, will not social distance if he can help it. But how he will like their two big dogs and they him is another question. 

Of course this sudden freedom doesn't help my existential crisis one bit. I move even further from who I was or am. If I am no longer caring for others I will face myself for the first time in 36 years. I will  take off the garments of parenthood, grandparenting, homemaking and be just me with nothing on. I will however have my guitar and I'll be far enough away from people to sing and play to my heart's content, and read, and write!

Early this morning the two young hawks were trying to catch a pair of squirrels who seemed very unconcerned, merely dashing off out of reach of their claws as they tried to coordinate swooping, turning and grabbing all at once. They took turns: first one then the other dove in for the catch and retreated to a nearby tree for their next go. To see such normally talented flyers awkward as broken kites, all tails and wings, is amusing, especially as they seem embarrassed by their inept attempts.

*https://globalnews.ca/news/7289764/coronavirus-tdsb-elementary-return-to-school-plan/