Pandemic Nostalgia

Remember how impatient we were, four years ago, for the pandemic to be over? We hoped to get back to normal in a few weeks, then a few months, then by end of summer. Hospitals were overrun, medical staff burning out, supply chains interrupted, grocery stores out of toilet paper. Four years later, here we are. Covid-19 is shifting from pandemic toward endemic. How’s that working for you?

Several friends have mentioned a surprising nostalgia for the period of public emergency. Not everyone, of course; not those who lost loved ones, got seriously ill, or suffered in isolation. For some, though, lockdown slowed us in ways we hadn’t slowed in decades. Unsafe to travel, attend indoor concerts, or gather with crowds of friends, we rediscovered quieter pleasures. Reading. Working jigsaw puzzles. Baking. Gardening. Sorting old photographs.

We learned about ourselves. Extroverts might discover that bigger and busier isn’t always happier. Introverts might find they miss the casual day-to-day contact of earlier times. Now it’s for us to invent a new normal that incorporates what we’ve learned.

Image:  Covid-19 ICU patient in São Paulo, May 12, 2020.