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Camille Granito Mancuso: Chatterbox

A slow reentry

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Several weeks ago, I went to a small gathering. It was the first of its kind for me in over a year.

We were a room of about 14 people, all fully vaccinated and past the two-week waiting period. We talked. We laughed. We hugged. It was like second nature. Admittedly, I thought it would be harder. I wore my mask for the first hour or so until I felt comfortable; with everyone vaccinated, there was little to gain from that. Well, most of us know that the hardest part of returning from space is reentry and this past year has been out of this world.

Last week, for my first dinner out, I told my young grandson that I’d forgotten how to get ready for events outside my house, other than simple grocery shopping. He listened while I admitted that I’d gotten dressed before I put on my makeup. So adorable, he told me it was okay and that I’d get used to it again. It’s all going to require some precautions, and it will also require some reprogramming, but we’re all ready.

Socializing has taken on a whole new value since our 14 months of restriction. Our expectations will be different … lower, we should guess, as we are just grateful for any opportunity to be with loved ones. The formalities will matter less; the gift of simply gathering will be more than enough.

Still, the reentry will not just be personal. Quarantine has taught us, across the board, how precious life is, and it will affect every part of what life means to us. Gathering will change on many levels. Within restrictions, existing restaurants will not only reopen, but new ones are starting to pop up all around. Businesses are rehiring and we will all be venturing back to the movies, coffee shops and stadiums.

I think more of us will even be going to the malls … even if some stores are gone … even though variety and availability are better on the net, because shopping is social. The malls have food courts, decorations, music, window displays and people. Many of us will be going just for the smiles, the strolling and the sound of life. We want to watch the kids climb around in the play areas, and see other humans in person again, to nod and say hello. We’re all going to need to be reinitiated into socializing, and most of us are really looking forward to it all.

However, the emotional drain that most of us have endured has affected each of us differently – here, we note that those on the front lines have suffered the most – so, more than anything, we all need to feel assured that life will soon go back to normal and that, now, as a whole, we are in a less leaky boat than we were in even just a few months ago.

The vaccine was distributed with great efficiency. It was, after all, a very tall and fairly unprecedented order. Some disorganization, especially in the beginning, was only natural. If we look to what little history we have of this type, we’ll see it went pretty well.

There is the real hope of the quarantine becoming just a bad memory. Though masks may remain a requirement for a while, the reopening of all businesses and schools, fully and permanently, is on the horizon. Weddings, birthdays, all manner of celebrations, even respectful funerals are slowly returning. Mostly, we are all anticipating an end to the health care crisis that caused so much suffering and death. We’ll have a chance to celebrate those who served the sick and dying, those who kept the rest of us fed and warm, and we’ll be able to finally honor those we lost.

Though isolation is still playing tricks with our heads – and the book “The Shining” comes to mind – it would seem that there is a light penetrating through the crevices of the world’s period of confinement and we’ll all get where we’re going soon enough. Those of us who have made it to the home stretch are lucky and grateful.

Of late, the mood seems at least a bit lighter for many of us and in many nations. Yes, there are countries still in need of help from the rest of the world and the world’s healthy nations must help, but there’s a light on the horizon and if we’re smart and play our hand right, it will soon shine on all of us.


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