My husband and I have traveled many places in the world separately and together, but spending our honeymoon in Europe was extra special. One of the sweetest times in Italy and other bordering countries is the "Passeggiata" or evening promenade that occurs religiously when the sun begins to set. This simple stroll was wonderful to experience because it illuminated the difference between European and American speeds of life. One culture pauses to partake in congenial conversation, while the other keeps working until 5:00 somewhere, looking for a restaurant to open, a bar to serve, or family to join for dinner.
However, our dear friends in Rome and Spain have had to forego their daily ritual in the name of COVID-19, or else receive a fine or something worse. Meanwhile, nearby neighborhoods in the U.S. seem to have taken up the torch and learned to slow their speed in the evening hours. The passeggiata is alive and well in American suburbs right now.
Maybe humanity has been forced into a unique territory in order to experience the unfamiliar; only then can we learn to relate to such uniqueness.
The social distancing rules (even if partaking in passeggiata) may aptly apply to our consumption of news these days. Since there is nothing else freshly reported besides our current contagion, maybe we need to absorb it with six feet of distance. A daily COVID update leads one to varying yet valid responses: fear, anxiety, heartache, frustration, or arrogance are probably the most common, but there is a fine line between staying informed and staying sane. As any new, obligated homeschool parent today would concur. There's a fine line between caring and coping.
Viewing anything from a distance causes some lines to blur, but in the case of corona, it actually communes all the lines together. Never before has the entire human population been collectively collaborating and caring over a singular commonality. This means that regardless of our response or emotion towards the hardship of COVID-19, we are all in it together.
I know that I, personally, don't have anything new or noteworthy to add to the plethora of pleas and promises out there on the worldwide web, but I began writing again (after a very short break) because I felt a gap forming from the separation. Universal isolation can bring us all into unity if we know how to share our strengths, rather than divide over differences. I hope that this site poses that very point and place.
I'm planning to offer my own perks of parenting four little boys in COVID quarantine in the next post (because they are all awake and wanting my attention at the moment). Moreover, I hope to continue supplying various tools (some already on the "Tools" tab) that have aided in my last seven years as a mom of both medically fragile, physically challenged, and closely educated munchkins males. Nothing you couldn't find elsewhere, but something that may spark a burned out lightbulb that needs new attention these crazy COVID days.
I know there is plenty to weigh down our already weighted bags from too much social media, but I hope and pray you can consume some creative and carefully careless (yet genuine) concern for each other, as we live, laugh, and love from a social distant.
Love from our crazy quarters to yours...
~CC
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