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How is the coronavirus pandemic affecting your life right now? Tell us about your experiences, feelings, and thoughts.
I took this photograph two days ago in Terminal 4 of JFK. We were on our way to Mexico for work, traveling again for the first time in a year. We're incredibly lucky to be fully vaccinated so feel comfortable traveling but of course, everything is different. The airport was so much quieter than usual, most stores aren't open and as I walked past this lounge I saw a squirrel inside. I did a double take, thinking for sure that it wasn't real but then it started moving. Poor thing was so skinny and was clearly looking for food but with the lounge being closed there was nothing for it to eat. Who knows how long it's been surviving inside the lounge or how much longer it could survive there. I told an airport worker about it but I'm not sure there was anything anyone could do for it. It reminded me of the "nature is healing / we are the virus" meme that was going around in the the early days of the pandemic but without the levity.
March 11, 2021
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Has the pandemic disrupted your plans for the future in any major way? If so, talk about the most significant disruption(s).
Pre-pandemic, I visited my son and daughter-in-law twice a year, five hours by air and another 45 minutes or so by taxi from my home to theirs. I don’t know when I will feel it’s safe for me to spend that much time in close proximity to potentially infectious strangers. Pre-pandemic, my partner and I went to multi-day music festivals, indoor live music performances, and participated in social dance evenings and weekends. I sang with a local Latin Jazz Ensemble, and with a women’s choral group. I can’t see myself doing any of those things until the pandemic has abated. As disruptions go, compared to the upheavals so many others have experienced, these are small. I haven’t lost family members, or health, or income, or housing because of the pandemic. But yes, my life is quite different than it would be if there were no pandemic, and I miss the social and cultural richness that I enjoyed pre-pandemic
August 11, 2021