1 Year And 1 Month Later...

Just watched Critical Role C2 Ep99, which originally aired back on Mar 12, 2020. There were several references to COVID-19, including the ending where they mentioned "do your research, wash your hands, we'll get through this together"... this would be the last time they had an episode before their months-long break to figure out how to do the show in a safer setup. It's a little weird watching the beginnings of concerns being raised and also hearing the idea of us getting through it together, a sentiment I feel like isn't as often communicated these days as it was last spring.

It's been a hell of a year and a couple months.

Last week I was reminded of the fact that as we closed out February in 2020, we had guests for PAX East and I spent the start of that weekend stocking up on supplies for the expected lockdown. This would be the last time we had guests and soon thereafter the North Cambridge Family Opera would announce the canceling of further activities for the foreseeable future, marking the end of my seeing friends in person except for the limited times I saw someone as I transferred circus supplies to them or when picking up groceries from a local (now closed) bar-turned-grocery-pickup or picking up takeout (back before I went into an even more thorough lockdown than I'm in now).

A year and a month after PAX East weekend, a year and 3 weeks after the Critical Role episode I just finished, and a year and 2 weeks after the first death in MA, we're now at over 17,000 deaths in MA alone and more than 554,000 deaths in the US overall. We're still seeing over 30 people die per day on average in MA and over 850 per day in the US overall. And we're far from through this as cases climb once again in the US, including a 40% increase in the last 2 weeks in MA, bringing us to comparable levels to those we saw at the peak of our first wave.

It didn't have to be this bad and we could have been so much closer to being through with it and far fewer people would have died and fewer would be suffering long term effects had we stayed working together more and worked less at re-opening quicker than the science and numbers would have recommended.

It's unclear to me what the summer will bring or even if I'll return to teaching stilting at street festivals in September/October later this year. I am more hopeful that I will be able to spend PAX East weekend with friends next year.

Stay safe. Stay sane. Stay informed. Stay working at this together (assuming you're still working at it at this point)

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