Joy with Pain in PY3
November 9, 2021
So much of living in the pandemic heading into year three is finding joy in moments to get through the painful ones, which keep coming wave after wave. We’re in wave 5 now, depending on how you interpret the math, and at 12K new cases a day again the hospitals are filling and getting overwhelmed. In a country roughly the size of Maryland. We’re back in the pain. 6 months into a J&J shot I know my immunity is weakening and last week a woman in my Dutch class texted us after class to let us know her husband had just tested positive and she texted again 2 days later when she also tested positive. Her kids are at school with my kid and we’re getting increased notifications from the school on faculty, students and parents testing positive. Until a press conference last Tuesday nearly all of the safety measures had been lifted in the Netherlands. Masks weren’t required anywhere except public transport and some municipalities but not in stores, classrooms, restaurants. With the new measures announced last Tuesday and now in place as of this past Saturday, QR codes are required in more places and compliance will be monitored. Masks are required inside stores and public transport platforms and some other places again. More measures may be announced this Friday. We’re waiting for the government to announce when and to whom boosters will become available. The vaccine has not yet been approved for children under 12 in the EU. So basically, we’re in the shit again. It sucks.
You have to find the joy in order to make it through this stuff. It’s winter. It’s dark and I have SAD and the weather is beastly so it’s harder for me this time of year. I start googling LA and wondering if I’d like living there. But I love Amsterdam and the point is you have to find the joy and the Netherlands is a good place to find the joy. Summer is so spectacular in the Netherlands the joy abounds, but there’s beauty and vitality in all the seasons. The twinkling white lights in the trees and along the canals. The canals, always the canals. Biking home from a candlelight classical music concert tribute to Freddie Mercury and Queen in the pouring rain. Walking through the seafoam along the beach while the North Sea churns. Candles burning from morning through night. Snert and Ollibollen. St. Maartins lanterns and candy.
And Brian. Always Brian.
