At first it felt like I was living in a parallel universe. But now it feels – as Yogi Berra once famously said – like déjà vu all over again.

I’m talking about the coronavirus, of course. Once my husband and I were vaccinated, it still took a little while for it to feel natural to go out without wearing a mask. Or to go anywhere other than for essential errands and appointments. But as people started getting vaccinated in greater numbers, and cases of COVID started to go down, we relaxed even more. And we started to feel like things were getting back to normal.

However, just as in science fiction stories where alternate worlds overlap or exist side by side, we knew that COVID was alive and well, and still affecting and infecting people – mostly those who couldn’t or wouldn’t get the vaccine. We felt relatively safe, but we knew there were a lot of people who weren’t.

And then Delta landed – a variant of the coronavirus that was even more transmissible than the original, and that quickly became the dominant strain in countries around the world, and eventually here in America, too.

We’re not exactly back to Square One, since we know a lot more about the virus than we did when it first showed up. But it sure seems like we’ve been here before – with cases and hospitalizations going up again, with battles over mask-wearing and social distancing, and with often-heated discussions over whether or not schools can safely reopen and restaurants can offer indoor dining or need to go back to outdoor dining or carryout only.

I’m not planning to go back into hibernation, at least not yet. But, as before, I’ll pay attention to the latest news and advice regarding the coronavirus, the Delta variant, and anything else related to COVID. When the rules and recommendations aren’t as clear-cut as I’d like them to be, I’ll try to use common sense and common courtesy in interacting with others, even with those who don’t do the same. And, as I’ve been doing for the last year and a half, I’ll pray that – this time – we’ll all do everything we need to do in order to put this pandemic behind us.

July 31, 2021
©Betty Liedtke, 2021

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