“Wash Yo’ Gotdamn Hands!” A Look Back At The Worst Year Of Our Lives.
365 days.
12 months.
One trip around the sun.
For many of us it’s now been close to an entire year that we’ve been in some form of quarantine and/or lockdown due to the ravages of Covid-19.
It’s going to take a very long time for us to collectively heal from this. The losses and disruptions are many-layered. Few have been untouched by hardship. We've had people we love taken from us, incomes vaporized or drastically reduced, dreams and social lives put on indefinite hold. I don’t think we quite realize yet all the ways in which this event has changed our future.
What’s the last fun thing you did before lockdown?
For us, it was a road trip out west. We were just returning from a few weeks in Sedona, Arizona. It was lovely. We did nothing but eat, relax, and hike the red rock trails.
As we made our way home through a succession of tiny towns time had wonderfully forgotten in places like Kansas, Texas, and Missouri we began to hear increasingly grim news coverage about this mysterious virus. The night after we got home and unpacked we went to a friend’s birthday party at a local restaurant with about a hundred other people. That was the very last thing we did socially.
In my opinion, the origins of this virus and the initial handling of the spread of it are highly suspect but it's difficult to deny the fact that it’s here and it’s damned dangerous to a segment of our population. The most difficult thing for me has been watching so many people deny science and the threat this virus poses. It’s been equally as surprising to witness otherwise kind people refuse to wear a strip of fabric over their faces to insure the safety of those vulnerable people around them under the guise of freedom.
“ Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.” - Confucius
Living through this ordeal has demonstrated to me how two groups of people can so easily hold diametrically opposed viewpoints when presented with the very same set of circumstances. I now understand on a deeper level how many of the nightmarish events in human history took place. A year into this ordeal I often wonder…Do a portion of these science-deniers realize they've made a mistake but feel too entrenched in their opinions now to allow their egos to admit it?
It’s difficult to deny something when you experience it first-hand. In the weeks of late October and early November of last year my father was shuttled from the hospital to rehab facility to two utterly horrific nursing homes then back to intensive care. On a sunny afternoon on November 5th my Mom, my younger brother and I said our goodbyes to him on a Zoom call as he lay in a hospital bed on a ventilator, unconscious. The Covid-unit nurse on duty that day assured us that my Father comprehended what we told him that day, it comforts me to believe that he did. He survived for another four days breathing on his own. During the weeks my father valiantly fought this virus we witnessed how it indiscriminately spread a path of destruction through all demographics young and old, sick and seemingly healthy.
It’s been a very tough year for us all. It’s taken a lot of creativity and diligence to maintain physical and mental health through the challenges of this pandemic. We all have scars from this that might never heal.
History can change us but it’s also trapped inside of us, like the growth rings of a tree. I see now that the only ones who truly understand history are those who’ve lived through it. We’re going to be just like those old folks we grew up with who survived the Great Depression, the ones who relentlessly clipped coupons and stashed their life savings in their mattresses or in an old coffee can carefully buried in their backyards.
When we’re old, some of us will quietly shoulder our burdens. Others will share their stories to anyone willing to listen. Those stories will, for the most part, fall on deaf ears. Even if they hear will future generations understand? If this pandemic has taught me anything it’s taught me how incredibly short our collective memories are.
What's the funniest thing that's happened to you during this past year?
It hasn't been all doom and gloom, after all. This past year has had its positives and some moments of levity peppered throughout. My funniest memory is of a guy my wife and I encountered while walking our beagle. He, clearly, had way too much to drink and was yelling, “WASH YO' GOTDAMN HANDS!” to startled strangers passing by. That scene will be forever emblazoned in my memory and I laugh every time I think about it. Ten or so months later my wife and I will still sometimes repeat that phrase to each other.
“That men do not learn very much from the lessons of history is the most important of all the lessons of history.” - Aldous Huxley
We’re now beginning to rise, starting to see glimpses of a light of hope at the end of this unbelievably dark tunnel. People are thinking about their futures again. We’re all determining how we’re going to pick up the pieces of our lives, re-establish friendships, careers, and businesses. We’re focusing a little less each day on the horrors of yesterday.
As I’m beginning to think about my own goals and dreams for this next year I’m excited. Two new books in the works, more travel, and lord knows what else (the unknowns are the fun part). Still, there’s a little part of me that can’t help but wonder, Maybe, just maybe, this time we’ve all learned something.
One thing is for sure, we're all painfully aware of how to properly wash our got damn hands.
With Gratitude,
Eric Vance Walton
(Gif sourced from Giphy.com)
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