Life Goes

Canada Day (being a holiday and the first day of the second half of the year) seems like a good day to make a first-time-in-forever update. Time to maintain that “barely-posts” status and fend off “totally abandoned.”

2020, of course, has been rough on everyone. I think I’m doing better than average. I’ll take this opprtunity to list off some good things in my life and call it “practicing gratitude”:

• I’m in good health. As far as I know I’m COVID-19 free.
• My family is, so far, also healthy.
• My family also is taking COVID seriously. My parents are both over 70 and definitely at high risk for the disease, but they have been doing all the right things: social distancing, wearing masks, washing hands, etc. There’s a lot of people who now have to watch their loved ones destroy themselevs with their own intentional ignorance.
• My country, province, and city are all successfully reducing our internal COVID infection rates. The majority of my fellow citizens are doing the right thing.
• I’ve kept my job, and there’s not much risk of losing it in the forseeable future.
• I’m able to work from home while staying productive and adequately focused. WFH has been my preferred mode, and this stint has confirmed that after three years of beeing primarily in an office.
• I have a partner who I see regularly. We share core values and relate to the outside world in similar ways. Our relationship is strong.
• My own introversion has insulated me from the emotional hits that a lot of people have felt from the necessity of reduced social interaction.
• I have enough at-home interests and hobbies that I can keep occupied without feeling housebound.
• I have lots of opportunities to get outside when I neeed to.
• I live in a society where people, in general, take racism (both systemic and personal) seriously, and are at least wanting to reduce its effects.

Every day we see stories from people who don’t have these good fortunes. It’s distressing to watch all of the ways in which people’s lives are fractured by the events of the day, but it’s far better than having to live it. For that I’m always thankful.

It leaves me with not a whole lot to talk about. My days have become comfortably banal. I get up, go straight to work. When I’m done I’ll go for a bike ride (assuming it’s not pouring rain), then occupy myself for the rest of the night. On weekends I spend time with Sarah. Every so often I’ll have a phone or video chat with family and friends. This is how it’s been for the past 4 months, and how it will continue to be as far as I can tell.

It’s not a bad way to be. It doesn’t make for good stories, but I’m OK with that.