525,600 minutes...

"how do you measure? measure a year?"...and here we are...a year later...the words to Jonathan Larson's "Seasons of Love" keep resonating with me...how are we?...whether we admit it out loud...or deep within when we are up at night...and we all have been up at night...we are all a little worse for wear...putting one foot in front of the other...just to go to the other end of your living space for so many weeks...well, that does strange things to your head...as Covid cases mounted...the odds were stacked...we all knew someone who had Covid...maybe it was us...we all knew someone who didn't make it...and now the scramble for the vaccine...a sense of encouragement...but we are weary and don't want to "be good" anymore...because somewhere inside we realize that the longer it takes to resume life as we knew it...the harder it will be to do so...and life will not be as we knew it...it cannot be...and that is a painful truth...tell me there won't be a shiver down your spine that first time you travel...or dine inside, if you haven't...or see a movie...and hopefully, a Broadway show...or sporting event...tell me what your fight or flight instinct will do when someone coughs more than once...this is the collateral damage of a pandemic...there is no reference point for any of us to look back to...this is the point going forward...the page in history books that will always be a part of our psyche...much in the way of September 11th...and I wish we were at the point where we comment on looking back...in as much as there is light at the end of the tunnel...we are still traveling through...thinking about what this year has meant...what lessons we have learned...what we will choose to take forward as we near the end of the tunnel...maybe Jonathan Larson, in his too brief life, had it right..."remember the love"...

The Hunger Games...

ready...set...go...log on to the computer...refresh...try the phone...dial the number...leave it on speaker...is covid gone?...is Springsteen touring?...no, you are trying to get a vaccination appointment...every state has different protocol...or none...so if you live in a state where your neighbor's retriever is in the new group...others...like us weary New Yorkers...are stuck in neutral...the city bitches that "outsiders"...you know, Long Islanders...those from Westchester...are taking their appointments...and there you have it...frustration and anger under the skin of a society locked down for a year...there really is no method to this madness...and as this unfolds we watch states like Tex-ass plan on removing mask mandates...a state where roughly 6 million of a total 29 million Texans have been vaccinated...that's not a herd immunity state...methinks Gov. Abbott took statistics with Betsy DeVos...when the governor of Alabama disagrees with this...you realize how truly screwed up the whole thing is...healthy, younger not yet vaccinated New Yorkers...working and commuting...walking through the leper colonies of Penn, Port Authority and Grand Central...where the mentally ill unmasked population greet them each work day...I hope there is light and vaccine at the end of the tunnel for all...I hope we reach that herd immunity that's been drummed in our ears for months...if you have gotten the vaccine...good for you and I hope it keeps you healthy...stop bragging about it like you got front row seats opening night for Hamilton a few years back...somewhere out there on your social media feed is someone waiting for their turn...out there every day trying to do their thing...praying that the commuter coughing in row 3 has allergies...