I guess people can process this in different ways but I just feel really happy. Vaccines are miraculous. Life is short. Nobody is guaranteed any amount of time. Got to enjoy it best we can and make the most of it.
— Angie Schmitt🚶♀️ (@schmangee) June 20, 2021
I really like this short thread of Angie’s. And I agree.
Recently my partner and I were in Asheville, NC. I’m admittedly not the most social person in the world, but it was very pleasant to be walking downtown amid the crowds of unmasked and seemingly-happy people. It is nothing like the 1980s was, but there are hints of that feeling here and there, small traces that summon a bit of the spirit of those more-open times. After the trauma and disconnection of the pandemic, more people just start talking to you. There are more friendly smiles. On one trail in the mountains outside of Asheville a woman stopped to chat and was very animated, open and almost effervescent in her joie de vivre. That felt more like how people were during the 1980s than any other experience I’ve had since that time.
There are too many dismal-minded sourpuss killjoys for this flood of the élan vital to truly take off, but there are still enough of the unafraid and the non-zombified to revivify the world a bit. We’re making a roar or two. It’s great in and of itself, but it’s also a wonderful way to battle against the lockdown lifers and the “completely safe” liberal crybabies.