Thanksgiving 2020

 

In the spirit of giving thanks the following are a few things for which I am thankful during our first, and hopefully last, Covid-Thanksgiving:

 

1.   Thankful that my parents have been patient and understanding with our decreased visitations. Our pre-Covid biweekly family dinners are joyous memories. Reflecting back after eight months of Shelter In Place those Sunday get togethers seem wonderfully gluttonous in the free interaction with loved ones outside our quarantine pod. I’m eager to have them restored.

 

2.   Life has taken on a much slower, relaxing pace for which I’m thankful. Life pre-Covid often came with a hectic schedule. I didn’t recognize it as such because I had become inured to it as just the normal pace of life. I’d like pre-Covid life to be restored, the non-viral aspect of it, but the pace of it I will work to slow down.

 

3.   The bonus year we got with [the boy]. It’s important he be on his own to stretch out his own budding independence, but that will be postponed for at least one year. The cancellation of his on-campus college experience is a bummer, though not from his perspective, he didn’t enjoy the on-campus experience despite the importance I’ve allocated to it. All that aside, I’m thankful we gained this bonus time with him.

 

4.   I’m thankful for the summer of [my daughter]. [The boy’s] older, he’s not a minor, and had been allowed more autonomy than his sister. He spends much of his time self-sequestered in his room with virtual college. But since the earliest days of Shelter In Place and throughout the summer [my daughter] was downstairs with me and [Wife Klem] playing out the routine of our days. It was a fun time imbibing of a larger dose of her and better understanding what she is gong through at her age. Or maybe I’m just thinking back with rosy-lensed goggles.

 

5.   I’m thankful for eBooks. My age-compromised eyeballs have come to the point where reading comfortably is like balancing a matrix of variables including adequate lighting and font size. EBooks satisfy all the thresholds. I started e-reading during this Covid summer when the hectic pace of pre-Covid life sloughed away to a relaxed pace. I’d spent many warm evenings on the patio reading and the eBooks made it easier than engaging physical books. 

 

6.   This downtime of Shelter In Place has allowed me the luxury of slowing down and reevaluating what’s important. Reestablishing my life priorities of family and a peaceful, happy, fulfilling existence.

 

7.   I’m thankful for the crystal clear line of demarcation the Covid months has allowed me to delineate between people who are important to me and those who are extraneous. 

 

8.   During this year of so much Covid-related economic wreckage, illness and employment distress my immediate family is merely inconvenienced, but not rendered incapacitated by the virus. For this I am thankful.

 

9.   I’m thankful for online delivery services and those essential workers making it possible. This took some getting used to, the large scale delivery of an entire Target or Costco order being delivered directly to the home rather than the sporting effort of hunting down each item in the store like some king of unenticing treasure hunt. But holy smokes, being allowed to obtain all the desired items without having to engage the parking lot, bumping around the aisles with the masses, and the lines at the check-out, I’m not sure I’ll ever go back to such drudgery.

 

10.Thankful that after eight months of close confinement we all still like each other, [Wife Klem], me and the kids. At least as far as I know.

 

 

I look forward to a joyful, socially distanced Christmas and a New Year with uncertain possibilities. This uncertainty allows room for optimism. I’m hoping for health and a better time in 2021, even though this would lead to a return of the crummy southern California traffic.

 

Happy Thanksgiving!

-Klem