Days are all middle now. No part of the week feels different from any other, any instant could be any part of any day. In the 120+ days of quarantine, we’ve collapsed so many load-bearing distinctions — work/life, school/home, weekday/weekend, spring/summer. This pandemic has been insatiable. It gnawed at the spring, slowly at first, until it consumed the last portions of the school year, including its habits and rituals of transition and completion. It ate Q’s birthday back in late April, which had to be celebrated via a surprise Zoom party with her friends who each set their virtual backgrounds to a favorite pic of her and them. It ate the meat of M’s birthday but left the bones of adulthood wet in his lap. It ate Mother’s and Father’s Day. It ate my wife’s birthday and has its jaw unhinged for mine. It swallowed the summer whole — no camps, no travel, no real non-virtual summer plans — and it’s licking its lips at the fall.
How to Pass Time
How to Pass Time
How to Pass Time
Days are all middle now. No part of the week feels different from any other, any instant could be any part of any day. In the 120+ days of quarantine, we’ve collapsed so many load-bearing distinctions — work/life, school/home, weekday/weekend, spring/summer. This pandemic has been insatiable. It gnawed at the spring, slowly at first, until it consumed the last portions of the school year, including its habits and rituals of transition and completion. It ate Q’s birthday back in late April, which had to be celebrated via a surprise Zoom party with her friends who each set their virtual backgrounds to a favorite pic of her and them. It ate the meat of M’s birthday but left the bones of adulthood wet in his lap. It ate Mother’s and Father’s Day. It ate my wife’s birthday and has its jaw unhinged for mine. It swallowed the summer whole — no camps, no travel, no real non-virtual summer plans — and it’s licking its lips at the fall.