On September 26, 1986, Pamela Barnes Ewing awoke and walked into the bathroom to find her husband Bobby washing up as he greets her with a cheery "Good morning!" None of that would be strange if not for the dream from which she had just awoken, in which Bobby had been run down by a jealous lover and killed. Except it wasn't just a dream, it was Season 9 of the hit prime time soap opera "Dallas." And 300 million viewers got whiplash after investing a year in a storyline which turned out to be made of so much ether. The most famous shower scene since "Psycho" meant that that the prior 12 months on the Southfork Ranch was a mirage, as if it had never happened.
Welcome to our own Season 9.
To be clear, it was certainly no mirage, and in many parts of the world the threat is still real. Many died, many got seriously ill and countless lives and business were disrupted, while some were irreparably harmed. But as of this writing on these shores about half the country has been vaccinated, and mask mandates and capacity restrictions are falling like dominoes. And almost as quickly as the country shut down on March 9, 2020 things are opening back up. From theatres to restaurants, social gatherings to shopping, sporting events to concerts, if you closed your eyes and wiped your memory banks you could be forgiven for thinking nothing had changed.
But change it did. While much feels the same as it ever was, much is indeed different. Work never ceased, but how it is done mutated in ways still evolving. Traffic is a mess as large numbers are still shunning mass transit and using their cars, and doing so in hours adjacent to the traditional rush. Schools are still grappling with social distancing and unvaccinated young people. Virtual meetings are still the norm, though at this point they are being driven as much by convenience as by health reasons. And no matter how welcoming the local stores are trying to be we can't seem to break our Amazon addiction for love nor money.
While some have started traveling for business again and taking in films in theatres, I have not. But I have been working on projects in person with unmasked associates, having friends over for dinner inside our house instead of just on the patio, and dining in restaurants as a normal part of our meal rotation. As we get deeper into summer I expect the calls will come to hop on a plane for work, that some Hollywood blockbuster will just demand to be watched on a big screen, and that concerts and plays will once again seem to be more fulfilling than threatening.
Yes, it is likely I will make accommodations to assuage the scar tissue that accrued over the past year on me and others. I expect to be more deferential to my companions' personal space, giving them a bit more room and tuning my antenna more acutely to their comfort level in being close to me. And while not disinfecting every surface I touch that I think another has even breathed upon, I will likely avail myself often of the hand sanitizer dispensers that are likely to become permanent fixtures at every touchpoint in the wider worlds.
After JFK was assassinated the columnist and Kennedy admirer Mary McGrory said to Daniel Patrick Moynihan, then a Kennedy aide and later Ambassador to India, the United Nations and a US Senator from New York, "We'll never laugh again." Moynihan replied: "Heavens, Mary, we'll laugh again. It's just that we will never be young again." And so it is for us. For sure we will laugh and love, go to movies and plays, visit with friends and take trips to far away places. But we will likely also keep a larger supply of toilet paper than usual, not to mention extra frozen chicken. And odds are wherever we are, be it Tahiti or Tennessee, when we hear someone cough or wheeze nearby, a little part of us will tense up as we wonder if that person just has a cold, or if that sound could be the start of the next big something else.
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Marc Wollin of Bedford is enjoying seeing old friends again in person. His column appears regularly in The Record-Review, The Scarsdale Inquirer and online at http://www.glancingaskance.blogspot.com/, as well as via Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.
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